外观设计侵权裁判标准的经济分析

The Economic Analysis of the Infringement Judge Standard of the Design Patent

对于外观设计专利侵权,目前我国司法实践中适用的"整体视觉效果标准"实质类似于美国的"新混淆标准"。"新混淆标准"的裁判过程大体上可以分为"雷同性对比"和"显著性判断"两个阶段。根据"汉德公式"的基本原理,被诉产品设计者的"回避成本"和消费者的"区别成本"应当是这两个阶段中要着重考虑的因素。被诉产品设计者如果要顺利免责,他要么证明涉案产品的"设计空间"本身太小,为了避免混淆将付出巨大的"回避成本";要么证明消费者只需要付出极小的"区别成本"就可以分清楚两种产品。

For design patent infringement,currently our country’s judicial practice on the application of the＂overall visual effect of criteria＂is substantially similar to US’s ＂new confusion standards＂. The judicial process of the ＂new confusion standard＂generally can be divided into two stages namely ＂identicalness comparison＂and ＂significance judgment＂. Based on the ＂Hand Formula＂,the accused product designer’s ＂avoidance cost＂and the consumer’s＂distinguishing cost＂are important factors to be considered in the two stages. If the accused product designer wishes to be successfully exempted from liability,he could either prove that the ＂design space＂of the product involved is too small,and there will be huge ＂avoidance cost＂to be paid to avoid confusion,or prove that the consumers could pay a small ＂distinguish costs＂to clearly distinguish the two products.