刍议平面印刷品保护制度的突破——论《专利法》25条第一款(六)项的删除

Discussion on the Breakthrough of the System of Print Protection——On the Deletion of the First Paragraph(6) of Article 25 of the Patent Law

《专利法》将主要起标识作用的平面印刷品设计排除在外观设计保护之外,这主要是基于我国每年外观设计申请量居高、平均质量较低的政策考量,是为防止大量设计质量较低的瓶贴和平面包装袋类外观设计申请挤占司法资源而一刀切式的规定,也是避免外观设计商标化的措施。但是外观设计的形式审查制度存在着使“标识作用”条件落空的问题,长此以往也不利于有质量的平面印刷品的申请,造成我国外观设计保护的真空地带,同时也不符合《Trips协议》对我国保护工业产品设计的要求。无论是从我国参与的知识产权保护国际条约,还是从国内相关司法实践来看,第三次《专利法》修改对平面印刷品申请的限制只能是临时调整措施,长远来看,这一条规定应当逐渐删除。

The Patent Law excludes the design of graphic prints, which are mainly used for marking, from the protection of design. This is mainly based on the one-size-fits-all policy considerations of high annual application and low average quality in China, in order to prevent a large number of design of low quality from occupation of judicial resources, like the bottle stickers and flat-bag design applications, and are also measures to avoid industrial design conflicting with trademark. However, the formal review system of design has the problem of making the "marking effect" condition unsuccessful. In the long run, it is not conducive to the application of quality flat printed matter, which creates a vacuum zone for the protection of China's design, and does not conform to the protection of industrial product design requirements in TRIPS for China. Whether it is from the international treaty on intellectual property protection that China participates in, or from the relevant judicial practice in China, the limitation of the third Patent Law amendment to the application for print can only be temporary adjustment measures. In the long run, this regulation should be deleted gradually.