Issue Date: 2021-06-24
The CNIPA, China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission and National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Action Plan for Intellectual Property Pledge Financing to Benefit Enterprises in Industrial Parks (2021-2023)" (the “Plan”). The Plan proposes that by the end of 2023, the accessibility of intellectual property pledge financing policies and service will be greatly improved, the popularity of intellectual property pledge financing services in industrial parks will be significantly expanded, the implementation rate of pledged patents to be significantly increased, the annual growth rate of the number of intellectual property pledges and pledge financing amount in more than 100 industrial parks will be more than 20%, and many new small, medium and micro enterprises to have used intellectual property to for financing.
The Plan sets out measures for the above goals, including research and guidance, sound incentives, innovations in evaluation and evaluation tools, credit cooperation models, corporate screening models, pledge targets, improving pledge registration services, conducting bank-enterprise docking activities, and expanding financial product supply. The Plan requires relevant local departments to strengthen overall coordination, designate action plans, strengthen drive for demonstration, promotion and publicity, and summary evaluation. The CNIPA will also establish a communication platform to screen and select typical cases.
Source: https://www.cnipa.gov.cn/art/2021/6/24/art_75_160255.html
The plaintiff, Dajia Ying Company, applied to the CNIPA on 25 January 2019 for a design patent titled "Graphical User Interface for Mobile Phones" (GUI), which was granted on 25 October 2019 with the patent number ZL201930044419.0 and is currently in effect. The design patent is used to run the operating interface of the software, and the main display interface provides recruitment information for mobile Internet workers, consisting of a search bar, recruitment information introduction bar, a list of options and different recruitment information. The plaintiff believed that the defendant, without the plaintiff's consent, used the same or similar graphical user interface in its Xiaoluo Recruitment APP and Xiaoluo Recruitment public WeChat account, which infringed the plaintiff's design patent right and caused significant loss to the plaintiff. The plaintiff subsequently filed an action to the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court.
Picture of the design patent
Picture of the allegedly infringing interface
The focus of the dispute in this case is whether the overall visual effect of the disputed interface and the design patent involved are similar to each other. The disputed interface was compared with the following features of the design patent: the search bar of the accused infringement graphical interface, the recruitment information introduction bar, function options, and popular screening conditions, job listings, and bottom function options. The overall visual effects of the disputed interface and the patent in question are different and not similar. After the trial, the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court held that according to the overall observation and comparison, the layout and design between the disputed interface and the design patent were quite different. In the end, the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court rejected all claims of the plaintiff.
This case is the first case involving a graphical user interface (GUI) design patent infringement dispute by the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court.