IP NEWS:SOEI Patent & Law Firm

The revised Japanese design law that came into effect on April 1, 2007 introduced new examination standards, which expanded the protection for electronically-displayed screen designs. Japan Patent Office has published guidelines for new examination standards. Based on the guidelines, we would like to provide more details on the protection for display screen designs.

Before the revision, protection for display screen designs has been extremely limited. The protection was basically limited to, for example, an initial operation screen on mobile phones, which continues to be protected under the revised design law. The revision now allows the protection for screen designs that are displayed in an annunciator which is different from the appliance actually being used. For Example, the operation screen designs for a DVD player displayed on a television receiver may be protected. When filing an application for such design, applicants are required to file a drawing of the display screen design as well as a drawing of DVD player in dashed lines.

The revision definitely expands the protection for display screen designs. However, many display screen designs have yet to be approved for protection. For your information, some of the display screen designs that cannot be protected are listed below:
1. Display screen designs which do not contribute to the function of the article, such as decorative background designs and content designs for a movie, etc.
2. Display screen designs which have been recorded as information in recording medium such as compact disks.
3. Screen designs displayed by software or over the internet on electrical computers.

As described above, the protection for screen designs is still limited. Furthermore, the guidelines provided by Japan Patent Office are rather difficult to grasp. If you have any questions regarding the subject matter, please do not hesitate to contact us.