Appearance Design Patent Infringement Determination Research

China's appearance design patents have always been in an awkward situation with a large number and a not-high quality,and there are a large number of patent infringement disputes every year.The number of cases is increasing and the case is more and more complicated.The overly general provisions and the lags that are common in legislation make it difficult for courts to make judgments directly.Recognizing the above issues,the Supreme People's Court has proposed a system of intellectual property case guidance with Chinese characteristics.Under the above background,this paper analyzes the No.85 guidance case published by the Supreme People's Court,and concludes that the focus of the dispute is whether the appearance design of the alleged infringing product falls within the protection scope of the appearance design patent right.Further analysis found that the criteria for patent infringement reflected in the focus of the dispute,as well as the functional design features,design points and design space involved in the judgment process,are not uniform in practice,resulting in different judgments in the same case.The study found that the reason for the above problems is that the relevant provisions of the legislation are too general,and there is no clear unification of the understanding of relevant concepts in the theoretical and practical sessions.Based on the analysis of the key points of the above inconsistent judgment,the author summarizes the infringement determination method of appearance design patent.First,exclude the functional design features.Secondly,"overall-feature" comparison standard are used to judge the product similarity,focusing on the authorized patent design points and the product design space involved.At the same time,the author put forward his own suggestions on the infringement of appearance design patents.The author believes that the judgment method applied in the case should be written into the judicial interpretation for future application.In the course of the trial,the signal of focus on innovation released in the judgment of the case should be accepted,and strengthen the proportion of innovation in similarity comparison.Based on this case,the author also explores how to establish a case guidance system for patent infringement with Chinese characteristics under the statute law system.