Research On Legal Protection Of Design

Design is a special object in the field of intellectual property. Design can be protected by patent law while it shows the feature of novelty as a patent; and by trademark law while shows the feature of distinctiveness as a trademark; and by copyright law while expresses aesthetics as a work.In our country, design is protected by patent law. But differently from the patent for invention and utility whose object protected is technical method, design patent protects the product itself. The article about design is limited in the patent law of China, which makes some people regard the protection as a simple work, but in fact it is more complicated than only compare the accused products with the object in the picture or photograph. Some design segment in the pictures should not be protected by the law, so we can only get a confirmed scope of protection after a proper analysis.The paper dealt mainly with four questions:Firstly, the conception and feature of the design. From the patent law of China, we can conclude that the design should have several special features, such as ornamental characteristics, utility and novelty and transfigure features should not be required. Secondly, the scope and content of the protection. The author believes that to confirm the scope of a product is prerequired by the accuracy of the scope of the protection. In this paper, the author analysis the status of the shape, muster and color of a design, which is important to ascertain the scope of protection. Design protects the product's ornamental features, so the prior art, functional aspects of the design, and the non-visible design section in normal use should be excluded.Thirdly, the infringement of design. Design is different from invention and utility patent, so the sight view and the method to judge infringement are also different.Fourthly, the confliction between design and the prior art. In our country the method of resolving the confliction has flaw. In fact, it's not a good idea to vacate the design when the confliction happens. The author believes the better way is to conserve it and use it in a nonprofit range.