in the New Taiwan Patent Act patent search, infringement analysis, invalidation and litigation in many technical fields. These technical fields include mechanical, electromechanical, electrical, software, communication, construction and civil engineering. In addition to Taiwan, he also specializes in patent prosecution in China, the United States, Japan and Europe. 8F, No. 376 Section 4, Jen-Ai Road Taipei, Taiwan 10693 +886 2 2705 8086 Phone +886 2 2701 4705 Fax al@mail.fblaw.com.tw www.fblaw.com.tw on January 1, 2013. In the new Patent Act, other than the amendments to the original provisions, related provisions re- garding "partial design," "icon design," "group design" and "derivative design" were also added according to interna- tional practices and industry develop- ment trends. The original provisions stipulated that protected new design patents have to be the "overall design" of the entire ap- pearance of the object. However, to avoid competitors in the market plagiarizing parts of the novelty features of prod- ucts and easily avoiding the protection of design patents, the amended Patent Act stipulates that the applicant may file a design patent application for the "partial design" of partial components of an object like car lights, or parts of the features for the appearance of an object like the exterior patterns on sneakers. When filing an "overall design" pat- ent application, the overall appearance of the drawing of the object in the specifica- when filing a patent application based on "partial design" of the object, the object to which the partial design applies must be stated in the specification. In addi- tion, "the parts in the drawing which the design intends to claim" and "the parts in the drawing which the design does not claim" must be presented in a man- ner whereby the different parts can be clearly distinguished. For example, the appearance of "the parts in the drawing which the design intends to claim" of the patent application shall be specifically and realistically shown in solid lines, and "the parts in the drawing which the design does not claim" shall be shown in dotted lines or colored in grey or shown in a translucent manner to clearly distin- guish "the parts in the drawing which the design intends to claim" from "the parts in the drawing which the design does not claim." Computer Generated Icons ("CGI") like ones used for click-to-action func- tions and Graphical User Interface types of drawings that are shown on display panels and monitors and only exist temporarily, and that cannot be constantly shown on objects like patterns or colors on wrapping paper or cloths. CGI includes application icons that are used for click-to-action functions shown on the monitors of computer or electronic devices. GUI includes pull down function menus or function menus in different forms. However, with the amendment of the Patent Act, it has been determined that the "icon design" of CGI and GUI used for objects are also a type of creation used for the appearance of the object, and thus it may also be subject to the protection of design patents. When filing an "icon design" patent application, since icon designs have to be shown through monitors, display devices or various kinds of display panels, thus the object that shows the icon design has to be designated. The drawings of the CGI and GUI cannot be filed alone. Furthermore, other than still "icon designs," icon designs that change in appearance like video game charac- ters that transform or user interfaces that change through click-to-action functions |