On November 30, 2021, multiple vendors in Henan were prosecuted for selling wire scrapers. According to reports from many merchants in Luoyang, Henan, a radish scraper they sold was suspected of infringing on the appearance patent, and Wei Peng, the owner of the patent, sued the court and ordered them to pay 20,000 yuan in infringement fees. So who will win this lawsuit?
Introduction to this event.
In fact, the name of this incident is relatively easy to understand. In February 2016, Wei Peng recognized this scraper as a patent, and also applied for registration of appearance patent rights in the country, and also obtained related patents. With the approval of the department, this patent is called a scraper. In addition to the scraper, Wei Peng has also applied for appearance patents for products such as slicing and shredding devices and vegetable slicing and flower cutting devices. Then in 2021, Wei Peng discovered that many merchants sold Baschi but did not pay him patent fees, so he took these merchants to court and asked them to compensate for the patent fees.
Who will win this lawsuit?
The editor also did some research on the Internet and found that Gua Xixi had a patent 40 years ago. Wei Peng only applied for an appearance patent, not an invention patent. Appearance patents protect shape. Beautiful designs such as patterns and shapes. Therefore, merchants can sell scrapers. As long as the scraper is not similar in appearance to the scraper applied for by Wei Peng, it does not infringe the patent. Moreover, Wei Peng is not the inventor of this kitchenware. He only applied for a patent for the appearance and cannot engage in commercial use. This is a very illegal behavior. So can Wei Peng win? We can wait patiently for the court's verdict.
Summary
Intellectual property rights are to protect our legitimate rights and interests, not to allow some people to take advantage of legal loopholes and use intellectual property rights to seek benefits. This approach is wrong . Therefore, the editor also appeals that if you invent something, you can apply for intellectual property protection so that others cannot infringe on your property rights. However, if it is just to take advantage of legal loopholes, it is not worth advocating.