Legal Protection Of Graphical User Interface Designs

Graphical User Interface(GUI)is a human-computer interaction interface displayed in the form of images.The design of the display interface of electronic products expands the appearance design from the field of traditional industrial products to the Internet space.Compared with the traditional design,GUI design has a wide range of commonalities in essence,and it is worth mentioning that its virtuality,compatibility and low degree of dependence on products have impacted the traditional design patent system.In recent years,due to the frequent occurrence of GUI design lawsuits in the field of science and technology products,and the huge commercial value of the design involved,it has attracted widespread attention from innovative entities.China’s Patent Law did not protect GUI designs at the beginning of the legislation.In the 2014 Order No.68 issued by the State Intellectual Property Office,the rule that the patterns displayed after power-on are not granted patent rights was deleted.Obstacles to the protection of GUI designs was cleared,and GUI design was incorporated into the patent law for protection in practice.GUI design is the design of human-computer interaction interface.It is the same intellectual achievement as other objects in intellectual property rights.However,due to the conceptual limitations of traditional physical industrial products,there were theories that mistakenly identify the object of its protection as a product,and thus it is in the authorization review provisions that are inconsistent with the nature of the GUI design are formulated during the stage,invalidation procedure,and infringement determination process.With the establishment of the partial design system,there should be a new understanding of the meaning of the product concept,that is,the product as the carrier is not required to be the whole product,it can be part of the product,and should not be limited to physical products.Including non-physical products,because the types of products are not restricted in the legislation,as long as they meet the conditions that can be copied in batches and are not natural objects,they should be recognized as products.In the future,when new types of objects emerge with the development of science and technology,as long as the product concept is not interpreted restrictively,it may leave room for protection of the new types of objects.The life cycle of a patent starts at the examination stage.Therefore,the authorized examination standard is very important to the protection of GUI designs.Due to the establishment of a partial design system,facing a large number of applications that will appear,only more stringent standards can be set for its quality.To improve the quality of design,the best option is to issue a single review specification for GUI design.Since the cognitive ability conferred by the regulations on the review subject is not limited to the level of ordinary consumers,but closer to ordinary designers,the review guidelines should change the review subject to ordinary designers.The implementation of substantive examination of GUI designs is also a way to improve the quality of designs.It can not only improve the stability of authorized patents,but also avoid a large number of repeated litigation in the judicial process.Infringement determination rules should also be adjusted accordingly,and changes in the subject of infringement determination should be linked to changes in the subject of review;when comparing product types,it is not limited to products with the same purpose,but should be expanded to regulate the behavior of copying others’ designs.In addition,the principle of "overall observation and comprehensive judgment" should be applied flexibly,that is,the content of the comparison should be clearly compared to exclude the design of other parts of the product from interfering with the comparison of infringement.After the addition of the partial design system,only by adapting the authorization system and the infringement determination rules can we improve China’s GUI design patent protection system.