Patent Protection On The Design Of Consumer Electronics

The design of Consumer Electronics belongs to one parts of the Trade Dress.With "Apple v. Samsung", which is the centurial patent wars, infringement on thedesign of Consumer Electronics gets more and more attention. As an "exotic", what isthe concrete definition of consumer electronics？What are the design of ConsumerElectronics’ feature compared to the general Trade Dress? What is the design ofConsumer Electronics with the legitimacy and necessity of protection reflected in?What are the design of Consumer Electronics’ rules, principles and elements and howto perfect China’s related legislation? These problems become issue. This article isdivided into three parts to respond this issue and to get proper answers.The design of Consumer Electronics are that have significant features,differentiate it from other types of goods and services, non-functional and able toacquire exclusive legal rights. It includes graphics, color, shape of the consumerelectronics products, and it also includes text, graphics and tags. This articlesummarizes the design of Consumer Electronics. At the same time, this articlesummarizes features of the design of Consumer Electronics compared to the generalTrade Dress’s feature. First, the design of Consumer Electronics combines the stealthfactors and dominant factors. Second, the protections on the design of ConsumerElectronics face the changing realities. These characteristics decides the specificity oflegal protection on the design of Consumer Electronics, which mainly reflected in therelationship between consumer electronics products and the protection of appearance,and its legal constitution.For the definition and protection of Consumer Electronics and the associationbetween them, which requires to explore the necessary of the protection of consumerelectronics products. It is mainly reflected in the following three aspects. First of all,protection of the design of Consumer Electronics is protects the recognition ofgoodwill. Second, it maintains the fair competition order. Finally, it is the "steppingstone" to compete for the international market share of design of ConsumerElectronics. However, we also should study on the justification of the protection of the design of Consumer Electronics. Therefore, this article also study on thejustification of the protection of the design of Consumer Electronics, which is fromphilosophical, economical, legal theoretical levels. From philosophical level, it ismainly about the respect for labor. From economical level, it is mainly about cost andefficiency. From legal theoretical level, it is mainly about in line with the principle ofour laws and the rules which our government participates in.Our designs of consumer electronic product is mainly protected by patent law.However, as the development and progress of our society and economy and theupdating of our technology, especially in the fields of electronics, the disadvantagesof this kind of protection are increasing. Such as there is no clear scope of protection,we cannot determine the main torts subjects, the standard of judgment of tort is fuzzy,and so on. For the improvement of our system of the design of Consumer Electronics,this article focuses on the suggestions on the following three aspects. First, we shoulddefine the scope of the design of Consumer Electronics clearly. Second, the tortsubjects of the design of Consumer Electronics should step to the further clarification.Third, on the method of determining, this article suggests the methods that from theperspective of recognition, and to exclude the functionality appearance to determinethe infringement.