With the continuous improvement of people's material and cultural living standards, people pay more and more attention to the beauty of appearance besides quality and performance when buying goods. It has brought remarkable economic benefits to the producers of industrial products.
Design patents and trademarks are located on the surface and packaging of goods, which are composed of specific graphics and play a decorative role in the appearance of goods; After obtaining the exclusive right to use a trademark, it belongs to the scope of industrial property rights together with the patent right of design.
So most people don't know the difference between them.
Design patents and trademarks are protected by patent law and trademark law respectively. There are significant legal differences between design patents and trademarks, mainly in the following aspects:
First, different ideas. Design patent is a new design that focuses on the shape, pattern, color or their combination of products, and has aesthetic feeling and is suitable for industrial application. The object of design patent protection is the decorative or artistic design of the product, which can be a plane pattern or a three-dimensional shape. More commonly, it is a combination of the two. It emphasizes that this kind of decorative or artistic design must be applied to specific products, and the most basic and important condition of design patent is creativity and novelty. Trademark refers to the combination of words, graphics, letters, numbers, three-dimensional signs and colors or the combination of the above elements. A trademark is a specific logo pattern that distinguishes products. It has nothing to do with the shape and structure of the product itself, mainly words, which are remarkable and not necessarily beautiful, but must have no prior registered trademark on the same or similar goods or services.
Second, the procedures are different. Design patents are not subject to substantive examination. If others present evidence of public use earlier than the patent at the time of patent application or after being granted the patent right, the design patent will be declared invalid or revoked. The registered trademark must pass the substantive examination, and the exclusive right and exclusive right can only be obtained after the objection period. The examination procedure is very strict.
Third, the protection period is different. The term of validity of a design patent is 10 years from the date of application and cannot be renewed. The period of validity of a registered trademark is 10 years, counting from the date of approval of registration. Where it is necessary to continue to use a registered trademark after its expiration, it shall apply for renewal of registration within 6 months before its expiration; If no application is made during this period, a grace period of six months can be given. Where an application has not been filed at the expiration of the grace period, its registered trademark shall be cancelled. The validity period of each renewal registration is 10 year.
Fourth, the scope of protection is different. The protection scope of design patent is narrow. The scope of protection of the design patent right is based on the design product shown in pictures or photographs. The scope of trademark protection is relatively wide, including not only the goods or services approved for use, but also the use of the same or similar trademarks on the same or similar goods.
Fifth, the conditions of legal protection are different. The patent for design does not need substantive examination, but an application must be filed with the state patent administration authority. If no reason for rejection is found after preliminary examination, the patent office can grant the patent for design. It usually takes several months to approve an application for a patent for design. For trademarks, an application for trademark registration must be filed with the State Trademark Office, which will approve the registration. Only the trademark owner can enjoy exclusive rights. At present, the application for trademark registration has nearly three years of examination and approval and three months of objection period. Comparatively speaking, the acquisition of trademark right is more complicated than the acquisition of design patent right.
I hope the above answers can help you! ! !