Double eleven is coming, as a shopkeeper, are you still having a headache over the design dispute?

Double eleven is coming soon, everyone is ready to buy from buy buy, and the Tmall at this time has already drawn up the front! If you are a Tmall shopkeeper, are you also rubbing your hands and want to do a big job this year?

Double 11 is coming soon, so don't be taken off the shelf by complaints from others because of the appearance patent!

Recent Case 1

Mr. a Tmall clothing shopkeeper, because the clothes are directly imitated explosions and will be operated, the business is booming. he thought that this double eleven would be able to do a big job, but he did not expect to receive a complaint, saying that the clothes in his store were suspected of infringing other people's new appearance patents and required the products to be taken off the shelves.

Recent cases 2

Coincidentally, Mr. Wang, who opened an online store, also encountered the same problem. Mr. Wang is in the bench business, and he also directly copied the popular bench products one to one, and even the packaging also copied the popular product packaging. While Mr. Wang was doing business, he received a letter saying that Mr. Wang's bench infringed on his design patent and asked for a license fee, otherwise he would complain to the platform and take off all products.

With the appeal case, the news that "the Tmall has a new regulation: if there is no design patent, it will be removed from the shelf" went viral in the circle of friends. But in fact, there is no such rule in Tmall. The reason why the appeal store is complained is only because of competition.

Importance of Design Patents

It is obviously the same product, but with one's own brand, you can sell it at different prices, which leads to competition. After all, no one wants their own hard-designed products to be directly copied by others. At this time, design patents are needed to escort you.

Under normal circumstances, according to the description of the "Patent Law", design patents are like "appearance", while invention patents are more like "connotation". Moreover, because the examination content of invention patents is more detailed and the examination process is more complicated, people think that the value of invention patents is higher than that of design patents, which indirectly confirms that connotation is more important than appearance.

But in fact, the new appearance patent is not useless. For example, in the appeal case, the design patent has played its due role: the store that applies for the design patent can complain about the store that has not applied for the design patent and ask it to be removed from the shelf. It is simple and crude, and the effect is immediate.

What products are suitable for applying for design patents?

Article 2 of China's Patent Law states: "A design refers to a new design that is aesthetically pleasing to the shape, pattern or combination thereof of a product, as well as the combination of color, shape and pattern, and is suitable for industrial application. It can be seen that a design patent shall meet the following requirements:

(1) refers to the design of shape, pattern, color or a combination thereof;

(2) It must be the design of the appearance of the product;

(3) must be full of beauty;

(4) It must be suitable for industrial applications.

In other words, all kinds of visible products (excluding methods) can apply for design patents, which can not only make the products have a high-value design sense, but also far abandon competitors behind. The most important thing is that the design patent application is relatively simple compared to the invention and utility model, as long as the submission of pictures and photos and brief descriptions of all angles that meet the requirements.

Therefore, enterprises and businesses must actively apply for their own patents in a comprehensive and timely manner, and monitor, prevent and respond to patent cybersquatting to avoid continuous losses to themselves.

The following small editor began to knock on the blackboard to draw the key points. The most important thing is: If there is a need for design or other patent applications, please contact Nanjing Hua Xun! O(∩_∩)O ~

Source: China Intellectual Property Office