for the several changes of the appearance of the icon designs during the show of use of the drawing. In the original provisions, it is stipu- lated that when filing new design patent applications, the appearance of each ob- ject shall be filed for, i.e. "an application for each design." However, when design industries are developing products, they often develop an entire creation for several objects that are often sold or used at the same time to achieve a design that can produce an overall special visual effect after the combination of the several objects. As such, in the new Patent Act, that two or more objects that are classi- fied as the same type and that are often sold or used in a group, like spoons and forks or teapots and cups may be filed for one patent application as a "group design" to protect the design of the overall visual effects of the group. However, when exercising the rights of the design, the group design can merely be regarded as one design; the rights of each component of the group design can- not be exercised alone. Furthermore, when developing new products, industries usually develop several similar product designs based on the same design concept, or develop the same product. In order to take into consideration similar designs developed based on the same design concept or due to improvements of the same prod- uct, which have the same value as the original design and thus shall be granted the same protection, the new Patent Act stipulates that when an applicant has two or more similar designs, the designs shall not be limited to the "first to file" condi- tion, and the design after the second one may be filed as a "derivative design" Compared to the "associated new design patent" of the original Patent Act, the deadline for filing a "derivative design" patent application is limited to when the applicant of the original design has filed a patent application (including the day that the patent application was filed) or before the patent examination of the original design. However, after the applicant of the derivative design obtains the patent rights, he/she may exercise sign shall not be classified as the original design and its effect shall be extended to the scope of similarity, thus the range of derivative designs is more independent and wider than the range of the original "associated new design patent." Since the related provisions for filing "partial design," "icon design," "group design" and "derivative design" patent applications were implemented on Janu- ary 1, 2013; therefore the applications filed for "partial design," "icon design," "group design" and "derivative design" patents before January 1, 2013, could file for "icon design" and "group design" patent applications after January 1, 2013 and that claim priority rights is earlier than the implementation date of the amendment of the Patent Act, which is January 1, 2013, the priority date shall be January 1, 2013. |