Design Protection For Graphical User Interfaces

On March 12, 2014, the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) announced amendments to the Guidelines for Examination, which give design protection to graphical user interfaces (GUIs). The amendments will take effect on May 1, 2014.

With the fast growth of the IT industry, SIPO recognised that there is a need to protect the creative work involved in designing GUIs for products such as mobile phones, computers and digital cameras. However, Section 7.4(11) Chapter 3 of Part I of the guidelines specifically prescribes that "the patterns shown when the product is electrified, such as the pattern on an electronic watch dial, the pattern on the screen of a mobile phone, software interface, and so on" are not the subject matter of a design patent.