The protection of industrial designs in China is provided by the
patent law and the industrial designs are called design patents,
like in the US. The design practice in China has been evolving in
many aspects ever since the first Chinese patent law came into
effect on April 1, 1985. However, some aspects of the design
practice in China have been challenging for applicants and
patentees to obtain meaningful protection scope of their design
patents. Proposed changes to the Chinese patent law will bring
positive changes in the not-too-distant future.
Power-On State
For a very long time, any pattern on a product which is only
shown when the product is powered on, such as the pattern on an
electronic watch dial, the pattern on the screen of a mobile phone,
software interface, and so on, is not considered as subject matter
that can be protected by a Chinese design patent. In practice,
applicants must remove such patterns from the drawings or pictures
of the application
