Research On The Ascertainment Of Infringement Upon Design Patent

Exterior.design is a special object in the domain of intellectual property because of its dual characteristics of industrial application and artificial appearance. It can be protected by patent law while it shows the feature of novelty as a patent; and by copyright law while expresses aesthetics as a work; and by trademark law while it shows the feature of distinctiveness or secondary meaning as a trade mark when registered; and by unfair competition law while it serves as trade dress of a prestigious product.In our legal system, the extent of protection for design patent is determined by the product incorporating such design shown in the drawings or photographs. But as of few legal rules formulated on exterior design in the patent statute, and some portion of design patent shown in the drawings or photographs are excluded from protection, combined with the rights conflicts among design right, utility model right, copyright, trademark right and trade dress right of prestigious products, which make it more complicated to ascertain the infringement of design patent. All of these indicate that only by comprehensive & analytical approaches can a just & fair conclusion be drawn in the stage of jurisdiction.This dissertation mainly deals with the following prospects in the four chapters.Chapter One, the basics of exterior design's legal features, right contents and the elements of right infringement act. The author analyses the design's legal features and is convinced that it should avianize the requirement of aesthetic consideration and focus on creativity instead. And meanwhile introduce the prohibition on...