Approximation Space Judgment of Design Patent Infringement

The analysis of patent scope is to reduce the possibility of infringing on the rights of other people, and it could also be a benefit to use the design around when developing the product. In fact, the patent range of invention patents is easier than the design patent one to identify because the judicial judgement of design patent could be always subjective, and therefore the judge would be confused whether the person infringes on the design patent of others or not. This study took 3 different type items for researching, and these 3 types were (1) Type I: the patent of iPhone which has been authorized by Apple; (2) Type II: The cell phones which have infringed on the design patent of iPhone after judicial judgements; (3) Type III: the cell phones which intentionally pirated the iPhone’s features but these piratic cell phone have not been accused of infringement by Apple yet. There were 18 samples in total in this study, and the researcher aimed at 30 product designers who have worked over 4 years in the filed of designing to do the similarity test. Taking the research results to compare with the infringed cases in the reality, and use Multi-Dimensional Scale (MDS) to build up the real range of patent which was identified by the professionals. The research results showed if the researcher took Type I to Type II as the real range of patent, and the most present Type III would infringe on the patent range of iPhone. This study results could build a display system, and it would help the real range of patent to present by visualization. This system could clearly show whether other people’s designs have infringed on the real range of patent of ours or not, it could be an important reference of infringement and patent overall management.