How to protect the patent of GUI?

Because the boundary between UI and GUI is blurred, we know that GUI design is not a simple art painting or a simple function list. Need to combine the needs of user research and human-computer interaction, and design with the goal of improving user experience. With the user experience gradually becoming an important factor to determine the success of products, excellent user interface design can bring excellent business value, so the innovation and protection of GUI are increasingly prominent in the competition of enterprises. So how to protect the patent of GUI? The above picture is the patent of Android graphical user interface (GUI). How to protect the patent of GUI? 1. Patent Protection of Static Appearance Presented by Graphical User Interface (GUI) Theoretically, the visual appearance presented by the interface can be protected by design patents, copyrights, trademarks, etc. The latter two are not the content of this article, so I won't show them. From May 14, 1, 2065438, China began to grant patent protection to product designs containing GUI. The author thinks that the case between the Patent Reexamination Board and Apple about whether the electrified graphic interface can obtain the patent right of appearance is one of the fuses for China National Intellectual Property Administration to protect the patent right of GUI design. In this case, the court made it clear: firstly, the legal basis for determining that a GUI design can obtain a design patent right is the provision in the fourth paragraph of Article 2 of the Patent Law, that is, a design that meets the following four legal conditions can be the object of protection of the design patent right in China: (1) industrial products as the carrier; (two) the new design of the product shape, pattern or their combination, as well as the combination of color and shape and pattern; (3) industrial application suitable for mass production; (4) aesthetic feeling; Second, under China's existing patent system, the premise that the pattern displayed after the product is electrified enjoys the patent protection of design should be based on the specific industrial product, and the relevant application documents should also fully disclose and fully display the overall design of the industrial product. The pattern displayed after being separated from specific industrial products does not belong to the object scope of our country's design patent. At the same time, referring to the provisions of China National Intellectual Property Administration Decree No.68, we can see that the authorized patent involving GUI design in China must be the combination of GUI and hardware equipment. According to Article 11 of the Patent Law, the acts of infringing the design patent include manufacturing, promising to sell, selling and importing products with design patents. Therefore, for the innovative subject, even if he has an authorized design patent containing GUI, he may not be able to claim this right under the current legal framework; For example, you can't exercise the design patent containing GUI to software development enterprises or Internet enterprises, because software developers or Internet enterprises don't manufacture, promise to sell, sell or import hardware devices containing GUI. 2. Patent protection of dynamic appearance presented by graphical user interface (GUI) For the dynamic appearance presented by the interface, both invention patents and design patents can be protected theoretically. The latter has been mentioned in the last article and will not be repeated here. The dynamic appearance of this interface can be written as an application document for an invention patent, which does not involve the discussion of patent originality. Of course, for this kind of application for a patent for invention involving GUI elements generated or provided by the interface, although it has technical characteristics, it can be considered as a technical solution. However, if the process or method produced or provided is known, the difference from the existing technology is only the interface layout, which is often considered by the examiner to be not creative, so the invention patent will not be granted. The author estimates that the patentee, Qihoo Company, took this into consideration, so it applied for a design patent. For an application for a patent for invention involving a GUI with a dynamic appearance, the author thinks it is difficult to determine whether the method or process of generating or providing GUI elements is prior art or known technology. Therefore, before applying, we should know the background and development status of related fields through retrieval, communicate with R&D personnel as much as possible, and highlight the improvement points as much as possible. In addition, when applying for an invention patent for a device or method, we can also consider adding the content about GUI in the dependent claims. How to protect the patent of GUI? We are here to answer this question for you. If you have more questions about patents, you can continue to pay attention to Bajie Intellectual Property or contact us by phone.