Packaging and Intellectual Property

The current internationalization of the protection of intellectual property has become a major trend in the world. The new situation of China’s accession to the WTO requires that we pay more attention to this work. Some of the well-known trademarks in China's export commodities have been pre-registered by foreign companies. For example, the US-selling five-star beer trademark has been registered by the US, and I am forced to change nine-star products to US sales, affecting sales. Other instances of counterfeiting of trademarks and packaging have also occurred. Therefore, packaging issues are closely related to intellectual property protection. The protection of packaging is mainly the patent protection of the product design, the copyright protection of the packaging and decoration screen, and the protection of the trademark exclusive right.
First, design patent
In recent years, counterfeiting has flourished. Counterfeit goods, in addition to imitation products, are more than imitation packaging design and design. The design includes appearance, patterns, decorations and colors. According to the provisions of the Chinese Patent Law, the design of a product is protected by law. Article 23 of the Patent Law stipulates that the design of a patent right shall be the same as the design that has been publicly published in domestic publications before the filing date or has been used publicly in the country. not similar…….
Article 2 of the Patent Law stipulates that inventions and utility models granted with patent rights should be novel, practical, and creative.
Novelty: refers to the fact that no identical inventions or utility models were publicly published in domestic and foreign publications before the filing date, were used publicly in the country, or were known in other ways, and did not have the same invention or utility model. Others filed an application to the patent office and recorded the patent application document published after the filing date.
Practicality: means that the invention or utility model can create or have a positive effect in use.
Creativity refers to the salient features and significant progress of the existing technological inventions before the filing date, and the utility model has substantial characteristics and progress.
According to the above provisions, the author has several points of understanding:
1) Design is also protected by patent law.
2) The appearance design must be a physical product that can be in the form of a product, or it can be the shape or pattern color on the appearance or on the packaging;
3) The design must be aesthetically pleasing and new design suitable for industrial use;
4) Any design that has been published publicly in domestic and foreign publications or has been used publicly at home and abroad does not have novel features and cannot be patented.
Second, copyright protection China's copyright law has been implemented since June 1, 1991.
Article 3 of the Copyright Law stipulates: Art and photography are copyright protection.
Article 46 of the Copyright Law stipulates that copying and distribution of works without the copyright owner’s permission to make profit is deemed to be a tort.
Article 52 of the Law on the Use of Books reads: “The term “copying” as used in this Law refers to the act of making one or more copies of a work by printing, copying, rubbing, remake, etc.
Third, trademark protection Any word, name symbol or combination of these elements that are used to indicate the identity of a commodity and distinguish it from other manufacturers and merchants from the manufacture or sale of goods is included in the scope of trademark protection.
Different countries have different trademark registration validity periods. China's trademark registration rights are valid for 10 years. They can apply for extension within 6 months before expiration or within 3 months after expiration. If a trademark is not used for two consecutive years, it is deemed to be abandoned. Special protection.
China's trademark law stipulates that trademarks must not use the following text patterns.
1) The same or similar to China's country name, national flag, national emblem, military flag, and military emblem.
2) It is the same or similar to the foreign country name, national flag, national emblem, and military flag.
3) The names of flags and emblems of international organizations and governments of various countries must not be similar.
4) It must not be the same or similar to the Red Cross logo.
5) Same or similar to the commodity and generic name.
6) Directly indicate the quality, raw material, function, purpose, quality, quantity, and other characteristics of the product.
7) It is ethnically discriminatory.
8) Exaggerate propaganda and deception.
9) Harmful to social morality or other adverse effects.