First Infringement Case in GUI Design Goes into the Court

View: 1711     Date: 2016-09-29 08:55

On April 22nd, 2016, Beijing Qihoo Technology Co (“Qihoo”) and Qizhi Software Beijing Co Ltd (“Qizhi”) filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Beijing Jiangmin Xinke Technology Co Ltd (“Jiangmin”), claiming it violate their design patents for the GUI (more fully known as “graphical user interface”) and requested a damage of RMB10,000,000. For the first case of GUI design infringement in China, Beijing Intellectual Property Court held a hearing on September 21st, 2016. 

According to Qihoo and Qizhi, they invest much each year in the research and development of new products and new technologies. In 2014, they designed the new GUIs in computer security optimization, which show the security testing status in a new way. Such designs were finally patented with patent No. of ZL201430329167.3 and ZL201430324283.6.

The complaint argued that Jiangming, the defendant, utilized the said design patents in the release of its new product “Jiangming Optimization Expert” without their permission, violating their patent rights and causing a huge loss to them.

To this end, the defendant argued that the disputed patent was titled “Computer with Graphical User Interface” whilst they only developed and released the free software “Jiangming Optimization Expert” which has a “graphical user interface”, yet with no acts of making or selling computers involved, thus not constituting the act of patent infringement.

According to the Article 11 of China’s Patent Law, after the grant of the patent right for a design, no entity or individual may, without the authorization of the patentee, exploit the design, namely make, offer to sell, sell, or import the design patented product for production or business purposes.

The complaint argued that users downloading and installing the involved software from the defendant could be the act of making, producing the GUI for business purposes. They further argued that both GUIs show the very similarity in the length-to-width ratio of user face, the U/L height ratio of view, U/L boundary being progress bar and the location of circle icon etc.

The defendant argued that its software with the GUI is not same as nor similar to the complaint’s design patent, which is not within the protection scope of the disputed patent. For example, the icon in the disputed patent show a rotation of speedy circle around it, but it does not show the dynamic change from small into big status of the icon of testing item.

How much is the GUI design worth? How to determine the damage amount? At trial, both parties also argued concerning the request for damage of RMB10,000,000. The complaint stuck to its original request for damage, with the damage amount dependant on the court’s decision. The defendant argued that the complaint’s request for damage was based on no statutory ground since the involved software was released for free, and accumulated installation users and active users were few within only 6 months after the release and thus with almost neglected market share in the similar software field, and furthermore, the online push had been suspended for update, so they almost made no profit.

The trial lasted for four hours, yet no decisions have been made.

(Source: PRB of SIPO; translated by: International Affairs Dept.)