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Japan IP court denies authorship claim over museum exhibits, affirms work-for-hire rule

By Toko Sekiguchi ( July 17, 2025, 08:55 GMT | Insight) -- Japan’s Intellectual Property High Court has upheld a lower court ruling that exhibit panels and narrated scripts used in a city-run literary museum qualify as employer-owned works under the country’s work-for-hire doctrine. The dispute, which has spanned multiple lawsuits over nearly two decades, reflects how Japanese courts continue to interpret and apply the statutory work-for-hire framework in public-sector and non-commercial settings.Japan’s Intellectual Property High Court has upheld a lower court ruling that exhibit panels and narrated scripts used in a city-run literary museum qualify as employer-owned works under the country’s work-for-hire doctrine....

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