Let's take a look at what appearance patent right?
Paragraph 4 of Article 2 of the Patent Law
Appearance design refers to a new design that is aesthetically pleasing and suitable for industrial application in the shape, pattern or combination of products and the combination of colors, shapes and patterns. From the meaning of the patent right of appearance design stipulated by law, it can be intuitively seen that the patent right of appearance design protects a kind of "new design", and we can analyze that this "new design" must have the following characteristics:
1. The carrier designed is "product"
Combined with the review practice, the following forms of products can not be granted the patent right of design:
1) is only a part of the product, not a complete product.
2) Products whose shapes, patterns and colors are uncertain or difficult to determine.
2. The key of design lies in "shape, pattern or their combination" or "combination of color and shape and pattern"
Aestheticism
Whether the design is "beautiful" is a subjective judgment, and it seems unreasonable to set this requirement as a necessary condition for the object of patent protection of design. In practice, there are many cases of applying for patent invalidation on the grounds that the design is not beautiful.
The "aesthetic feeling" stipulated in the fourth paragraph of Article 2 of the Patent Law actually distinguishes the protected object of design from the protected object of invention and utility model. Inventions and utility models focus on a function or technical effect, while appearance design focuses on the visual feeling given by the appearance of products, which should be visually unique without requiring any functional effect.
4, suitable for industrial application
Suitable for industrial applications usually means mass production, but mass production does not require that the appearance of the products must be exactly the same. As long as it is not considered as a different design within the cognitive range of ordinary consumers, it can be considered as "suitable for industrial application".
5. This is a "new" design.
Under the current patent examination system, the application for a patent for design does not need substantive examination, so the "new design" mentioned here only needs to be judged according to the contents of the application documents and the common sense of ordinary consumers. As long as the design does not belong to the design composed of geometric shapes and patterns (such as hexagonal monochrome tiles) that are common in the product field, or only consists of the original shapes, patterns and colors of natural objects without any intellectual activities (such as simulated toys), then this