The purpose of this law is to encourage the creation of designs by promoting their protection and utilization so as to contribute to the development of industry.
(2) OUTLINE OF THE SYSTEM
Designs, upon application, may be registered after examination in accordance with the Design Law.
Any owner of a design right or exclusive licensee may require a person who is infringing or is likely to infringe on his design right or exclusive license to discontinue or prevent such infringement (Article 37).
(3) CABINET ORDER AND MINISTERIAL ORDINANCES
Enforcement Order of the Design Law
Regulations of the Design Law
Design Registration Order
Enforcement Regulations of the Design Registration Order
(4) OUTLINE OF THE CONTROL
1) Items Covered
Any person who has created a design that can be used industrially may obtain a design registration in respect of such design, except in the case of the following designs (Article 3):
i. Any design which has been publicly known in Japan or in any foreign country prior to the application for a design registration;
ii. Any design which has been described in any publication distributed in Japan or in any foreign country or any design which has become available to the public through electronic communication circuits prior to the application for a design registration.
iii. Any designs which are similar to those referred to the two preceding items.
2) Outline of the Control
i. Design right
A design right is established in accordance with the respective laws in each country. However, there also exists the Paris Convention that obliges the signatories to protect designs. As the third act (revised agreement) of the Hague Agreement which establishes an international registration system for industrial designs, the Geneva Act was adopted on July 2, 1999, and has subsequently come into force on December 23, 2003.
Incidentally, the term of the design right shall be 15 years from the date of registration (Article 21).
ii. Procedure for application
Any person who wants to obtain a design registration is required to file with the Patent Office an application stating the following details together with drawings attached to the application (article 6):
(1) The name and the domicile or residence of the design applicant (if the applicant is a legal entity, its name and the name of the representative);
(2) The name and the domicile or residence of the creator of the design;
(3) The articles to which the design is applied.
(5) HIGHLIGHTS OF THE RECENT AMENDMENT
In order to facilitate advancement of creative level of designs, and deal effectively with diversification in practice of design development as well as sophisticated copying of design, relevant legislations were amended to strengthen the protection of design rights. Important amendments are as follows.
i. Portion of design system (Article 2)
In the past, an entire article was subject to a design registration, and therefore a component part of an article could not be registered. Under this amendment, where a component part of an article that is not subject to transactions as an independent product is an original design, a portion of design system is adopted in order to effectively prevent the imitation of component parts of a design.
ii. Design of set articles (Article 8)
In the past, only 13 "set articles" were eligible for registration as a single design even though the articles may have been composed of several more. In this amendment, the number of items eligible for registration as a set of articles has increased sharply. Such items include system kitchens, living room sofas and dining room suites.
iii. Related design system (Article 10)
The similar design system has been abolished and the related design system was introduced. Under the similar design system, the effect based on a similar design was not recognized. Therefore, where the other party's design bore little similarity to the principal design of the right holder, it was difficult for him to exercise his rights. Under the newly established related design system, the same independent effects as of ordinary design rights are granted to related designs so that the same person can obtain a broad protection for his/her similar designs. In order to obtain a design right as a related design, an application for a related design should be filed on on the same day as the principle design. If a related design application is filed at a later date it will be refused because of its own principle design.
iv. System of describing characteristic features (Article 5-2 of the Enforcement Regulations)
For the purpose of rationalization and speediness of the examination, a system of describing characteristic features are introduced. Through this system, applicants can declare the characteristic features of their design. It is also expected that examiners will be able to judge precisely the intentions of the applicant.
v. Diversification and simplification of the way to specify the design in a request and drawings
Although a preparing method of drawings was limited to a regular view method in the past, in this amendment, requirements for a request and drawings have been diversified and simplified. It has become possible to specify a design applied through various expressive techniques and with fewer drawings than before.
vi. Harmonization with systems of foreign countries and others
1) Rise in the level of creativity
Since the level of creativity which had been judged on the basis of domestically well-known designs was raised, a design that can be easily created on the basis of domestically or overseas publicly known designs cannot be registered (Article 3-2).
2) Elimination of the protection of a design only based on function
It has been clarified that a design only based on functions shall not be registered. Evil practices have been taken into consideration because a portion of design is now subject to protection in this amendment (Article 5).
3) Review of the status of the first-filed application
In the past, a subsequently-filed design similar to a first-filed design which had been refused was refused and a farther subsequently-filed design similar to it was also refused. Under the amended law, applications to which the decision of refusal has been fixed or those abandoned are also deemed never to have been filed. Thus, the status of the first-filed application is not considered (Article 9-3).
(6) REFERENCE INFORMATION
(Liaison Offices for Further Information)
The Patent Office http://www.jpo.go.jp
International Affairs Division
Tel: 03-3581-1898
Application Support Division
Tel: 03-3593-0485
Formality Examination Division
Tel: 03-3501-6733
Design Division
Tel: 03-3580-6920
Registration Office
Tel: 03-3580-6843