Open AccessA new approach determining the scope of legal protection of industrial designs in Ukraine
Author(s) -
Hanna Yudina
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
teorìâ ì praktika ìntelektualʹnoï vlasnostì
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2519-2744
pISSN - 2308-0361
DOI - 10.33731/62020.233956
Subject(s) - scope (computer science) , industrial design , product (mathematics) , product design , law , business , political science , law and economics , computer science , engineering , sociology , mathematics , mechanical engineering , geometry , programming language
Key words: scope of legal protection, informed user, overall impression, degree of author's freedom, registered industrial design, unregistered industrial design
This article analyzes the norms of the Law of Ukraine «On the Protection of Rights to Industrial Designs» as amended on October 14, 2020, in the part that regulates relations as to the establishment of the scope of legal protection for an industrial design. A comparative analysis as to the norms of wording the Law of Ukraine «On the Protection of Rights to Industrial Designs» dated on October 14, 2020, and the norms of the said Law as of 05.12.2012, has been carried out, and as a result of which it was found that the norms of wording the Law as of 05.12.2012 concerning legal relations pertaining to the establishment of the scope of legal protection and the fact of the use of an industrial design in a product or later registered industrial design, as well as the requirements for means by which the scope of legal protection was found, differ significantly from the norms wording the Law as of 05.12.2012. In particular, it was established that prior to the adoption of the Law as amended on 14.10.2020, the scope of legal protection for the industrial design, instead of being based on the impression produced on an informed user, was determined by the set of essential features presented on the images of the product andgiven in the description of the industrial design. There are also differences in means used to establish the scope of legal protection for the industrial design. If in the wording of the Law as of 14.10.2020 only pictorial means are used, then in the wording of the said Law as of 05.12.2012 — together with pictorial means descriptive verbal means are also taken into account (the list of essential features of the industrial design is given in the description). Also distinctive is that the wording of the Law as of 14.10.2020 did not provide legal protection for the appearance of the product solely due to its technical functions, the appearance of the product, the size and the shape of which must be accurately reproduced in order that one product can be mechanically connected to another one or located inside, around or in front of another product in such a way that each one can perform its function and the features embodied or used in the product as part of the assembled make and are being invisible during normal use of the product.