Research On The Patent System Of Partial Industrial Design

With the increasing maturity of the appearance design of a product,the design space is gradually reduced,and more and more innovations in product appearance are manifested as the change of the partial design of a product.Therefore,the overall protection of partial design gradually become a consensus.The fourth amendment to the Patent Law of the People’s Republic of China(hereinafter referred to as the Patent Law)makes it clear that partial designs will be comprehensively protected.However,compared with other countries and regions,the design patent system has just been established just for a shorter time in China,and the situation is particularly complicated.It is extremely difficult to establish a mature partial design patent system.In the current situation of lacking theoretical research on the partial design patent system and insufficient practical experience,it is urgent to strengthen the in-depth study and discussion of the partial design patent system.Starting from the current situation and challenges of design protection in China,this paper analyzes the necessity and feasibility of establishing partial design system in China,and studies the experience of design protection in other countries and regions,and preliminarily discusses the establishment of the system of confirming and safeguarding the right of partial design rights in China.It is expected that the system of partial appearance design can stimulate innovation and promote economic and social development.This dissertation mainly includes the following four chapters:The first chapter introduces the status quo of design protection in China.The general trend of product design protection in China is “lenient entry,stringent exit”,that is,no substantive examination is conducted,and the authorization rate is high,but the probability of being invalid is also high.The object scope of design patents has gradually expanded.The protection scope of the design patent product is shown in the picture or photo,and a brief explanation shall be given to explain and limit the protection scope of the design patent;in addition,the invalidation procedure plays a role in substantive examination of whether the design patent meets the authorization conditions,and the infringement comparison is determined the innovation of the design patent with respect to the existing design.This chapter also analyzes the protection history and status of the graphical user interface(GUI)after it became the object of my country’s design patent protection in 2014.The second chapter discusses the necessity,rationality and feasibility of partial design.It discusses the importance of establishing a partial design system from the perspectives of the impact on the relative application number and application quality of design patents,the difficulty in identifying design essentials,and the difficulty in protecting the rights of patentee,and discusses its rationality in legal theory,and discuss its feasibility by combining with domestic and foreign theory and practical experience.The second chapter discusses the necessity,rationality and feasibility of the comprehensive patent protection of partial designs in China.It discusses the importance of establishing a partial design patent system from the perspectives of the decline in the relative application number of design patents,the low quality of the overall application,the difficulty in identifying design points,and the difficulty in protecting the rights of patentees.Combining domestic and foreign theory and practical experience to explore its feasibility.Chapter Three examines the external appearance protection system.This chapter takes the relevant systems of the European Union,the United States and Japan as the object of investigation,and explores the scope and conditions of the object of design from the perspective of comparative law.Among them,the European Union has a wide range of design objects,which can highlight the innovations of partial designs in various forms.The scope of the American industrial design is also relatively wide,emphasizing the publicity of the pictures in the application documents on the innovation points.Surface shadows and dotted lines can be used in the pictures to highlight the innovation points.The scope of Japanese design patents is relatively narrow.Dotted lines can be used to clearly distinguish the "part of the partial design required to be protected" and "other parts".The subject of innovative judgment is an ordinary designer in the field.The fourth chapter puts forward the strategies and countermeasures for the construction of partial design system in China.This chapter proposes that the object of a partial design patent should be reasonably defined,pointing out that “partial” refers to an indivisible part of the product as a whole,and should be relatively complete and independent and occupy a certain physical space;in addition,as a part of a product,parts can also become a partial appearance.Design the object of the patent.This chapter proposes that with regard to the application documents,the pictures of the partial design still need to show all of the product,and various types of views and expressions can be used to show the innovations of the partial design.At the same time,the brief description should give a detailed description of the products and innovations.In the conclusion,this dissertation holds that the partial design patent system of products will definitely promote the improvement of product design level in our country and promote economic and social development.Based on the theoretical research and practical results at home and abroad,this article proposes to strictly limit the object and scope of protection of partial design patents,distinguish its novelty,creativity and infringement judgment subjects,which made preliminary suggestions for the establishment of a partial industrial design system.