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Protecting intellectual property rights in packaging design (Part 1)

with the rapid development of modern commodity production and the increasing variety of designs and colors of similar commodities, consumers are dazzled by a wide range of colorful commodities. In the increasingly fierce market competition, how to attract the attention of consumers is an important embodiment of the competitiveness of enterprises. For this reason, some people call today's market economy "eyeball economy". The universal experimental machine for packaging wood-based panels of goods adopts the exchange servo system to realize the position control. The design of installation is the first step for consumers to recognize goods. It carries the important mission of attracting eyeballs, and is also an important means to realize the value of goods. It plays a positive role in the fields of production, circulation, sales and consumption

commodity packaging design is the medium of commodity information transmission and the most direct advertisement of commodities. Through unique modeling, new materials and exquisite printing, packaging can accurately convey the texture, shape and purpose of goods, effectively render the characteristics and charm of goods, and a successful packaging design can better shape the brand image and convey the unique culture of the enterprise

at present, there are relatively serious infringements in the field of packaging design, and the excellent designs of enterprises often suffer from infringement such as counterfeiting to varying degrees. For example, Hebei Chengde Lulu Group has often received feedback from consumers recently, saying that they bought the so-called "Lulu" almond dew in the market, and found that they were cheated after returning home, because the fonts on the cans and outer packing boxes of counterfeit goods The decoration design is very similar to the real Lulu, which can't be seen without careful discrimination. With the improvement of Lulu's popularity and the expansion of market coverage, the infringement and counterfeiting of Lulu's trademark and packaging decoration have occurred frequently, and are becoming more and more intense. In 1999, there were more than 20 such counterfeiting enterprises, and now it has increased to 43, distributed in Hebei, Liaoning, Shandong, Henan and other provinces. Lulu is not the only enterprise experiencing this experience, but many well-known enterprises have this experience. Facing the increasingly serious infringement, the packaging industry should take positive measures

first, strengthen the awareness of self-protection of enterprises

the law gives us all kinds of rights, and the realization of rights depends on the main body itself, that is, we should take the law as a weapon to safeguard our own rights. The packaging industry mainly maintains its rights in the following ways:

1. Apply for a design patent

design, also known as industrial design, or industrial design for short, is a new design that is aesthetic and suitable for industrial applications about the shape, pattern, color or combination of products that can also prolong their service life. The protection of designs began in 1711. The city of Lyon, France, formulated regulations for the protection of silk fabric patterns in the city. This system with a history of nearly 300 years has been widely used all over the world. At present, many domestic enterprises also apply for design patents to protect their unique packaging design. For example, a winery in Hubei once designed a chime shaped wine bottle and applied for design patents to protect it. Enterprises can apply for design patents when the packaging design is completed, even in the design process. Using this way of prior protection can not only strengthen the prevention ability of enterprises, but also save a lot of enterprise resources

Sichuan Mianyang Fenggu Liquor Co., Ltd. is a well-known brewing enterprise. The company attaches great importance to the protection of intellectual property rights and has applied for a design patent for the outer packaging of its products. In April, 2003, Fenggu liquor found that its packaging design was widely copied in the province. The imitator was a liquor company named "Fengge". The appearance of the bottle of its "Fengge" touqu liquor was very similar to the patented product of "Fenggu". Fenggu liquor immediately reported to the Sichuan Provincial Intellectual Property office. After investigation, the appearance design of the wine bottle of Fenggu liquor company was in the protection period at that time. By comparing the patent announcement pictures of "Fengge" touqu wine bottle and "Fenggu" touqu wine bottle, the legal department of Sichuan Intellectual Property Office believed that the two were very easy to confuse, so it made a decision according to law: Fengge liquor company immediately stopped manufacturing and selling "Fengge" touqu that infringed the patent right of appearance design, And shall not put infringing products on the market in other ways. Fenggu liquor has effectively protected its own interests by using patent rights. In the process of litigation, the design patent can be used as direct evidence to refute the infringement, which can buy more time for the enterprise to safeguard its rights than collecting evidence afterwards, and save the cost and resources of the standard block used by the enterprise to calibrate the hardness tester

2. Registered trademark

trips agreement defines trademark as follows: any symbol or combination of symbols that can distinguish the goods or services of one enterprise from those of another enterprise. China's trademark law defines a trademark as any visual sign that can distinguish the goods of natural persons, legal persons or other organizations from those of others, including words, graphics, letters, numbers, three-dimensional signs and color combinations, as well as the combination of the above elements

the three-dimensional mark mentioned here is the so-called three-dimensional trademark, which mainly refers to the appearance or packaging of goods as trademarks. For a long time, China's law does not protect stereoscopic trademarks. After the amendment of the trademark law in 2001, it was included in the scope of protection, which provided the basis for the registration of stereoscopic trademarks in packaging design from the legislative level. Enterprises can apply for a registered trademark for their unique packaging design, such as the containers of our common beverages and alcohol products, as well as the outer packaging bags of some bagged food. For example, the most famous three-dimensional trademark is the bottle shaped trademark of the "Coca Cola" glass bottle. At present, three-dimensional trademarks have been registered in many countries in the world

registered trademarks also involve the issue of trademark logo, which refers to the material entity with trademark patterns such as words, graphics or their combinations. Such as trademark paper, trade signs, Trademark Ribbon, packaging paper with trademarks, etc. The most common are bottle stickers for cosmetics, drugs and wine, trademark ribbons on clothing, food and cigarette packaging, etc. As a material carrier, trademark identification plays an increasingly important role in packaging design. The quality and performance of most goods are not very different, and consumers' purchase behavior is mainly based on their brand awareness. The logo bearing the trademark plays an irreplaceable role in the transmission of brand information. Therefore, it is also included in the scope of protection by the trademark law. Item 3 of Article 52 of the trademark law stipulates that forging or unauthorized manufacturing of other people's registered trademark logo or selling such logo is an act of trademark infringement

recently, cases of infringement of registered trademark marks have occurred from time to time. In September, 2004, the staff of Wahaha Group found in Yanbian that the two trademarks of the group "pure water in the age of innocence" and "Wahaha drinking pure water" were infringed to varying degrees locally. For example, the trademark logo of "water star" mineral water produced by Yanji Taihe spring water plant is similar to the logo of "innocent age", and the trademark logo of "Shiguo mineral water" produced by Changbaishan mineral water development center and another enterprise are similar to the logo of "Wahaha Purified water for drinking", and even the color matching is almost the same. For this reason, Wahaha Group sued three enterprises to Yanji Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce and Helong Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce respectively. After the investigation and evidence collection of the three enterprises by the two industrial and commercial bureaus, more than 180000 trademark logos and more than 1600 boxes of various mineral water have been sealed

3. According to Item 2 of Article 5 of the Anti Unfair Competition Law of China, it is an act of unfair competition to use the unique name, packaging and decoration of well-known goods without authorization, or use the name, packaging and decoration similar to well-known goods, causing confusion with other people's well-known goods and mistaking the buyer for the well-known goods. This provision is to protect the name, packaging and decoration of well-known goods, but the premise is well-known enterprises

the packaging and decoration of commodities are used to decorate and publicize commodities. It decorates commodities through distinctive patterns, colors, words, shapes and even new materials. Its purpose is not only to protect commodities and beautify commodities, but also to attract attention and stimulate consumers' desire to buy. As an important part of packaging design, commodity decoration design often appears on the commodity itself or packaging at the same time as the trademark. It has a special function different from trademarks, which is intended to beautify goods, attract consumers' attention, and achieve the purpose of promoting goods. As people's aesthetic taste and consumption habits are constantly changing, the decoration of goods is also changing. Unlike trademarks, which are relatively stable once registered, their purpose is to make consumers maintain the freshness and attention of goods. In addition, commodity decoration can reflect the characteristics of the commodity itself, so that consumers can directly perceive the content of the commodity, thus reflecting the personality and characteristics of the enterprise

Harbin beer was born in 1900 and is currently the largest beer manufacturer in Northeast China. In 2002, Harbin beer group found in the domestic market that the packaging and decoration of various tinned and bottled beer produced by St. Stan beer company were marked with "Harbin beer gin" and "Harbin beer Haojiu", both of which were divided into four words in two rows, "Harbin beer" was above, "gin" and "Haojiu" were below. Harbin beer company first sued St. John to Harbin Administration for Industry and commerce, which imposed administrative penalties on St. John and seized some of its products in accordance with the anti unfair competition law. However, St. Stan still did not stop its infringement. Therefore, at the end of October 2003, Harbin Beer Co., Ltd. sued again to Harbin intermediate people's court. Harbin beer company believes that "Harbin beer" has become unique to Harbin beer 2 The name that the tensile speed should be lower than the tensile speed at the brittle ductile transition has been well known and recognized by the majority of consumers. Without the permission of the plaintiff, the defendant has produced seven products with the name "Harbin beer" without authorization since 2002 and sold them on the market, causing economic losses to the plaintiff

after hearing, the court held that according to the time and region of Harbin beer production and sales, the annual output, sales volume, market share of the commodity, the ranking among similar products in the industry, as well as the advertising investment of the commodity and the situation familiar to consumers, Harbin beer can be recognized as a well-known commodity, "Harbin beer" is its unique name, and the exclusive right is protected by law. Anyone who uses the name "Harbin beer" on similar goods without permission is an infringement. On the packaging and decoration of the beer produced by the defendant, whether the horizontal writing of "Harbin beer" or the vertical writing of "Harbin beer" are enough to cause confusion and misunderstanding among consumers. This behavior has damaged the plaintiff's business reputation and commodity reputation, violated the principle of good faith and the relevant provisions of the anti unfair competition law, and infringed the plaintiff's exclusive right to use the unique names of well-known commodities, and should bear the corresponding civil liabilities

4. Copyright protection

some packaging and decoration designs with unique ideas and innovative ideas can be protected by copyright. China's copyright law adopts the principle of automatic protection, that is, works automatically obtain copyright as soon as they are produced. Therefore, adopting copyright to protect decoration design is similar to using the protection method of the anti unfair competition law. Generally, it is through litigation after the works are infringed