局部外观设计专利侵权要件的再思考

Research on the Criteria for Determining the Infringement over Partial Design Patent

2022年10月31日,国家知识产权局颁布《专利审查指南修改草案(再次征求意见稿)》。其中涉及局部外观设计制度的内容,对传统外观设计专利侵权判定规则向局部外观设计案件的映射带来了巨大的挑战。“局部用途”的概念重新激发了对外观设计产品性的质疑,“局部与整体的关系”还引发了“整体观察”原则如何适用的争论。在以“整体产品”为基础判断产品种类相同或近似时,继续将相同或近似种类产品作为侵权成立的前提的做法将与局部外观设计的特性相冲突,因而应考虑仅将其作为侵权判定的考虑因素之一,并承认在局部用途相同或相近时对局部外观设计专利予以“跨类保护”的可能。同时,在判断设计要素相同或近似的环节中,应承认“局部外观设计要求保护部分在产品整体中的位置和/或比例关系”存在“非常规变化”的可能性,以应对纷繁复杂的工业设计体系和实践,并以更加开放和包容的态度重新审视局部外观设计领域中“对整体视觉效果更具有显著影响”的要素。

On October 31,2022,the China National Intellectual Property Administration released the Draft Revision to the Patent Examination Guidelines(Second Draft for Solicitation of Comments).The draft involves contents concerning the partial design and poses a great challenge to applying traditional criteria for determining design patent infringement to cases involving a partial design.The concept of “partial use” has raised doubts again on the relevance of design patents to products,and the “relationship between the part and the whole” has also triggered debates about how the principle of “overall observation” should be applied.As determining the identity or similarity of products is based on the “whole product”,it will lead to the conflict with the characteristics of partial designs if such factor is still regarded as a prerequisite for constituting an infringement.Therefore,identity or similarity of products should be considered as only one of the factors to be taken into account in determining infringement,and it is possible that partial design patents are granted for “cross-class protection” when the partial use is identical or similar.At the same time,in determining the identity or similarity of design elements,the possibility of “unconventional changes” in the “position and/or proportionality of the claim part of to the product as a whole” should be admitted,so as to cope with the complexity of the industrial design system and practice.It also needs to reexamine the elements which “have more significant influence on the overall visual ef fect” in partial design patent.