Research On China’s Partial Partial Design Patent System

With the development of the economy,the design innovation space of functional products has narrowed,and the design space of mature products is also very limited.On June 1,2021,China’s newly implemented Patent Law recognized the legal protection of partial designs for the first time in the form of legal provisions,correcting the previous neglect of partial innovation.However,at present,China has only introduced partial design conceptually,and has not yet followed up its relevant supporting regulations in a timely manner,and regulations such as application file formats,authorization review rules and infringement determination rules are still missing,and legal protection for partial innovation cannot be truly realized.It can be seen that further refining and improving the specific system of partial design patents is still of great research significance.Starting from the theoretical analysis of partial designs,this paper introduces their meaning,characteristics and practical needs for protection,expounds the industrial value,institutional value and international value of partial designs from multiple dimensions,emphasizes the importance of protecting partial innovations to industrial development and innovation,and affirms the positive significance of China’s introduction of the concept of partial designs.Next,the current situation and problems of partial design protection in China are analyzed,which provides enlightenment for improving the specific system of partial design in China.It introduces the preliminary preparations made in China in terms of legislation to protect partial innovations,clarifies the changes in the protection of partial designs in examination and judicial practice before the introduction of the partial design system,and finally points out that after the formal introduction of the partial design system,China still faces problems such as low standards for authorized review,unclear requirements for application file formats,inconsistent positioning of infringement judgment subjects,and difficulty in applying infringement determination principles.It also compares some similarities and differences in the specific rules for granting and determining infringement of foreign partial design patents,analyzes and summarizes the protection experience of partial designs,and tries to learn from the experience to make up for and improve the specific system of partial designs in China.Compared with the EU and the United States,Japan and South Korea have clearer requirements for design protection,and China can learn from the practices of Japan and South Korea to impose certain restrictions on the object of protection and authorization conditions.Finally,based on China’s actual conditions,combined with the "Draft Amendments to the Patent Examination Guidelines(Draft for Comments)" and the "Draft Amendments to the Patent Examination Guidelines(Draft for Comments)" that have not yet been adopted,targeted suggestions for improving the existing problems are put forward.In terms of the authorization system,the introduction of clearly differentiated examination standards similar to the utility model inventive step examination standards,strict examination standards,improve patent quality,enhance the public’s recognition of the value of design patents,and save judicial resources;Appropriately supplement and clarify some specific specifications in the way partial designs are filed.In terms of patent infringement determination,reasonably select the subject of infringement judgment,such as taking "general consumer" as the subject of legal fiction and fiction as an actual purchaser with the cognitive level of ordinary designers;Appropriately adjust the principles of infringement determination,such as selecting "overall observation and comprehensive judgment" and "comparison and comprehensive judgment of key parts" respectively considering the size of the proportion,so as to improve the legislative deficiencies of partial design infringement judgments,so as to promote the long-term development of China’s patent system.