Research On The Design Patent Protection For Graphical User Interface

With the extensive application, Graphical User Interface plays a very important rolein the market competition. As an intangible property, the protection for Graphical UserInterface takes more and more attention. Many countries and regions have established theDesign protection mode for Graphical User Interface.Before2014, there is not any definite legal provision about the protection forGraphical User Interface in China. From past practical experience, it can not be protectedperfectly. Conform to the international trends and business needs, China also identified theDesign Patent protection for Graphical User Interface through revising the "PatentExamination Guidelines" in March2014. However, this revision is poor and can not meetthe needs of the Graphical User Interface protection. There is a lack of uniform standardsand specific guidelines for practical operation. Author tries to find the deficiencies inexisting regulations and make some recommendations accordingly to the research in thisthesis.This thesis is divided into three chapters.The first chapter is to introduce the protection situation of Graphical User Interface inChina and analyze the problem in the status quo. The first Section is to make a briefintroduction about the concept, compositions and types of Graphical User Interface，and explicit that the “Graphical User Interface” in this paper includes GUI and ICON. InSection II author described the status of intellectual property protection for the GraphicalUser Interface. To highlight the need of design protection，the first part in this section isabout the protection situation for Graphical User Interface from other intellectualproperties; the second part is about the protection situation from Design. Then in the thirdsection, author pointed out the problems exist about the current provisions in our country.They mainly are: the objects scope of Design protection is not clear or enough; there arenot specific guidelines for practical operation; and the innovation points in GraphicalUser Interface can not be protected perfectly.It is necessary to learn the mature experience from other countries when we are ininfancy. So, the second chapter is a comparative study on the Design protection situationsin other countries or regions, including United States, European Union, Japan, South Koreaand Taiwan area. This chapter introduces five sections related to each country or region,and the six section is a compared summary about the characteristics of the Designprotection for Graphical User Interface.Based on the analysis results in the second chapter, the third chapter is to proposesome advices to the problems in the first chapter. In the first section, author proposes toperfect the scope of protected object of Graphical User Interface. The advices are mainlyabout the abolishment of functional requirements, the expansion on the protection for thepart design of Graphical User Interface. All the GUI and ICON designs which can beapplied on products should be protected. Then there are some suggestions about the name,drawings and descriptions of the GUI and ICON design patent application in Section II.