Clearing the road: car designs in China

01-08-2011

Chuanhong Long and Zhesheng Xin

China’s Supreme People’s Court has tried a case on determining the similarity of designs, and issued a retrial judgment of directive significance. Chuanhong Long and Zhesheng Xin explain.

The judgment, which clarifies the method of determining the similarity of designs, will contribute to standardising the criteria for applying the law.

The China Supreme People’s Court published, in late April of 2011, Ten Prominent Intellectual Property Judicial Protection Cases Tried in Chinese Courts in Year 2010.

The only design patent case was a retrial for a patent invalidation dispute between Honda Motor Co. Ltd, the Patent Reexamination Board (PRB) of the Chinese State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), Shijiazhuang Shuanghuan Automobile Co. Ltd and Hebei Xinkai Automobile Co. Ltd. (which later became the bankruptcy liquidation group of the same company).


China Patent Law, Honda, similar car designs, Supreme People's Court, SIPO, automotive, design

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