Research On The Regulation Of Graphic User Interface (GUI) Design Patent Infringement

On October 17,2020,the fourth revision of the Patent Law was voted and passed at the 22 nd meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.The most noteworthy is the clarification of the protection system for“partial designs”.The "partial design" regulation is a response to the appeals and discussions of the academic circles on the "partial design" system in recent years,and is aimed at gradually improving my country's design patent protection system.The importance of "partial design" is more prominent in the vigorous development of graphical user interface(GUI)designs.The amendment of the patent law is to solve the protection dilemma of GUI designs in judicial practice.Provide assistance.Although my country is striving to explore ways to improve the design protection system,the road ahead is tortuous,and there is still a big gap between the current protection system and the severe protection status quo.With the issuance of the "Order No.328" of the State Intellectual Property Office,the newly revised "Patent Examination Guidelines" also made some beneficial improvements to the graphical user interface(GUI)design.The first is to weaken the "product" restrictions on the graphical user interface(GUI)design.Although it does not completely abandon the requirements that must be attached to the "product" when applying for a graphical user interface(GUI)design,this is also a benefit.When the applicant applies for a graphical user interface(GUI)design patent,its name does not need to be strictly based on the product,but can choose a name that can summarize a larger scope to expand the scope of protection of the patent.Secondly,in the brief description,the applicant is allowed to list all the hardware products that the graphical user interface(GUI)design will be applied to.This undoubtedly gives the applicant an opportunity to expand the scope of protection of his patent,which is conducive to further protection.The legal rights of the applicant for a graphical user interface(GUI)design.Although the amendments to the Patent Examination Guidelines have some improvements in the protection of graphical user interface(GUI)designs,there are still insufficient areas for the determination of infringement of the patentees of graphical user interface(GUI)designs.Further improvements are needed.To explore the solution.In the "Qihoo vs Jiangmin" GUI design patent infringement case,the Beijing Intellectual Property Court pointed out that "the accused infringement is the act of the defendant providing the user with the alleged infringing software,because the accused infringing software does not belong to the category of design products.Correspondingly,it is unlikely that it and the computer product involved in the patent can constitute the same or similar types of products..." [(2016)Jing 73 Min Chu No.276 Civil Judgment of Beijing Intellectual Property Court.].Obviously,the above benefits still cannot solve this problem,that is,it is difficult to claim that developers and publishers of software that display a patented graphical user interface(GUI)design after operation constitute direct infringement.This is extremely detrimental to the protection of the interests of the patentees of graphical user interface(GUI)designs.This article first introduces the basic concepts of graphical user interface(GUI)appearance design,and discusses the necessity of protecting it,and analyzes and demonstrates both industrial interests and industrial competition;secondly,the article draws on two classic cases Cut in,extract the practical problems of our country's GUI design from the case and some thoughts caused by it;again,transfer from the classic case to our country's current protection system,sort out our country's current system,and discuss the existence between the system and reality Analysis of the gap between the two,to further deepen the problems of China's GUI protection system.It also introduces and analyzes the GUI protection system of some countries outside the region,and reflects on how our country's system and the useful experience of countries outside the region should be combined,based on the national conditions of our country,and further advanced the related GUI design.protection of.