But if this design depends on how similar you are, generally speaking, if the similarity reaches 90%, then you should pay attention.
The following are several ways to determine design infringement:
Generally speaking, there are several ways to judge the infringement of design patents: direct comparison method
The direct comparison method includes two aspects. First of all, the accused infringing products are directly compared with the pictures or photos of patents. When adopting this method, we should pay special attention to the poor visual effect, especially the patent pictures with strokes are different from the visual effect of the products. The difference in visual effects of these pictures cannot be regarded as the difference between this patent and the alleged infringing products. The second is to directly compare the patented product of design produced by the patentee or licensee with the accused infringing product. This comparison has the best effect and is the easiest to judge whether it is the same or similar. However, attention should be paid to whether the products produced by the patentee or licensee are exactly the same as the pictures or photos at the time of patent application. Many enterprises constantly improve their product design after applying for patents, and the products actually produced are often different from those when applying for patents. Therefore, when comparing products directly, the differences or changes should be eliminated from the patent documents, because the patent protection scope of design is based on the pictures or photos in the application approval documents.
Cross contrast method
Cross-contrast method is generally more suitable for design patents closely related to well-known public products. In real life, many product designers always design products on the basis of existing well-known public products. When several people or enterprises carry out new innovative design with reference to a product, the products designed later are always more or less the same as or similar to previously known public products. In this case, we should make a cross comparison to judge whether other people's products constitute infringement. The specific method is to compare the accused infringing products with the known public products, and then compare them with the patented products. If the accused infringing product is closer to the patented product, it generally constitutes infringement; if it is closer to the known public product, it does not constitute infringement. Through this cross-comparison, we can eliminate the similarities caused by well-known public products. Otherwise, it is unfair to the accused infringer, and it is likely to expand the design scope of the non-patentee to its protection scope in disguise.
Perspective contrast method
Perspective comparison refers to comparing the similarities and differences between patents and accused infringing products from different angles. The view of appearance patent usually has six sides. If the other side of symmetry is the same, one side can be omitted, and the bottom or back that is not easy to see in actual use can also be omitted. So some graphs may have only four or five sides. When comparing differences, look at the front view first, and then compare the side view or top view. Generally speaking, it is not very important for many products to look down and up, but for smaller products, such as toy pistols, all views are easy to see, and often there is no owner, so we should comprehensively judge their similarities and differences from all angles.
For some transparent or translucent products, we should also pay attention to the visual effect in the transparent state. The appearance and shape are the same, but the visual effect of the fully transparent design adopted by another product may be very different, which makes it difficult to confuse and distinguish two products with the same shape, so it is not easy to make the same judgment at this time.
We should also pay attention to the visual contrast effect of various changing States of some products in use, and we can't judge the infringement only by the approximation in one state.
In addition, it can also be compared from the design point of appearance design, which is often a unique innovation. If the design points are the same or similar, but there is no obvious difference in the rest, it shall be deemed as infringement.
When judging whether a design product is infringing, we should observe and compare it from multiple angles, and finally comprehensively judge whether it is the same or similar.