Determination Of Functional Design Features In Infringement Of Designs

With the continuous improvement of China's economic level and the process of industrialization,people's material living standards have been improved,and more attention has been paid to product appearance design.In the process of hearing the patent infringement cases in the courts of our country,the number of cases concerning the infringement of patent for design has been increasing.In determining whether appearance design patent infringement in judicial practice,the judgment standard,the feature of functional design problems such as the way of the debate,especially in the judicial practice,states the common objective test method is used to,but in the process of specific judgement standard is differ,lead to recognition of the results,it has become a big barrier for determining appearance design patent infringement.In order to promote the development and innovation of the design and strengthen the protection of the patent of the design,it is necessary to study the criterion of the feature of the functional design.This paper takes the patent infringement case of "hand-held shower head" appearance design as an example,takes the functional design features as the research object,and combines the theory and practice of judging the functional design features at home and abroad.Through literature analysis,comparative study and other methods,this paper analyzes the existing problems of objective test method,and puts forward its own insight on how to reasonably determine the design characteristics of functionality.This paper is divided into four parts:The first part is about the case of patent infringement of "hand-held shower head" appearance design,The controversial focus of this case is whether the push button on the handle of the authorized appearance design involved in the case is a functional design feature.On this basis,this paper introduces the main issues that should be discussed in this paper,that is,what criteria should be adopted for functional design features and the improvement measures for such criteria.The second part is to explain the relevant concepts and theories of functional design characteristics.The appearance design must have the function factor and the decoration factor,the appearance design function refers to the technical function and the legal function.The classification of design features in practice includes "dichotomous method" and "tripartite method",in which the design features are divided into functional,decorative and both functional and decorative "tripartite method" is more reasonable and can meet the needs of objective reality.The third part introduces and analyzes the existing rules of functional design characteristics and the different criteria at home and abroad.Objective testing method in the "function of the only limit principle" has become a common way to determine the characteristics of functional design in various countries,alternative schemes and design space has become a European and American countries to use this principle in particular important rules.However,this principle still has limitations,and its application scope is too narrow to meet the needs of judgment in practice.Therefore,this part,by analyzing and sorting out,draws on the useful experience of European and American countries,in order to provide reference for the improvement of this method.The fourth part is about the suggestion of defining the criterion of Chinese functional design.Based on the integrated analysis of the foregoing part,this paper attempts to find a way to determine the functional design characteristics in line with China's national conditions and practical needs.This paper puts forward some Suggestions on the identification methods,types and legal regulations of functional design features,and expands the application scope of objective test method,so as to be helpful to the relevant judgment of functional design features in the infringement judgment of exterior design in China.