TOKYO, Nov. 19, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Tokyo-based restaurant group, Pepper Food Service Co., Ltd has opened 345 locations of Ikinari Steak in Japan since the brand was founded in December 2013. On November 30th of this year, the company will open its first outpost in Akita prefecture, giving them a presence in all 47 prefectures in Japan.
The company takes pride in Ikinari Steak’s signature “Steak-Serving System” which they invented and filed for a patent application on June 4th on 2014; obtaining the patent on June 10th, 2016 in Japan (Japanese Patent No. 5946491)
Below is the system that Ikinari Steak has patented (Numbers 5 and 6 was added later due to a request for correction)
1. Ikinari Steak’s Steak-Serving System includes; how Ikinari Steak navigates the guests to their table, how they have customers order by weight, how they cut the desired amount from the block of meat, how they cook the steak, how they bring the cooked steak to the guest, which involves;
2. The usage of “cards” that indicate the table numbers
3. The usage of “measuring machines” that weigh the meat.
4. An “indication” that shows to which guest each cut of meat belongs to.
and
5. How the above “measuring machine” prints out a “sticker” that has the weight of the meat and the number of the “card” written on it.
6. The above “indication” is a “sticker” with the weight of the meat and the number of the “card” printed on it.
However on November 24th, 2016, an objection to this patent was filed, and on November 28th of 2017, the Japan Patent Office revoked the patent. In response, Ikinari Steak took action against the Japan Patent Office to rescind the revocation of the patent at the Intellectual Property High Court in Japan.
On October 17th of 2018, at the Intellectual Property High Court number 821, the Chief Justice officially ordered the rescission of the revocation of the patent. Japan Patent Office did not make an appeal for revision during the given period, therefore Ikinari Steak won this case.
This court decision is extremely important as to the relevance of Ikinari Steak’s invention, and we anticipate that this decision will be shared in various law reports. Ikinari Steak believes that they were able to win this case due to the company’s team effort, including the founder’s unique thoughts and deep understanding of new inventions, their patent attorney who was able to put the invention into words on the specification for the patent, and the attorney who understood the inventions correctly and appealed to the court.
With this court decision, Ikinari Steak’s Steak-Serving System, a case where a patent reflected Japanese efficiency, will be paid more attention, and will be regarded as a truly unique and unrivalled system which has now been officially approved by the Japanese court. Ikinari Steak will continue to grow by making legendary strides along the way.
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Steven Hall [email protected]
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