Product appearance design refers to the shape, pattern or combination of the product, as well as the combination of color and shape, pattern made aesthetic and suitable for industrial application of the new design. In view of the fact that applied works of art have both practicality and artistry, the elements of product appearance with aesthetic significance may constitute the design within the scope of China's patent law. Article 23 of the Patent Law provides: "The design for which a patent right is granted shall not belong to an existing design; Nor has any entity or individual filed an application with the patent administration department under The State Council for the same design before the date of filing, which is recorded in the patent documents published after the date of filing; The design for which the patent right is granted shall be markedly different from the existing design or the combination of features of the existing design; The design for which the patent right is granted shall not conflict with the legal rights acquired by others before the date of filing. "Therefore, the substantial components of a product design to obtain a design patent are: novelty and differentiation. Novelty means that the product design does not belong to the existing design, nor does it belong to the conflicting application. The easiest pit to tread in the protection of design patents is the loss of novelty caused by self-disclosure of design before application, including but not limited to product display, product listing, media disclosure, wechat circle of friends disclosure, etc. Many design patents lose their novelty due to self-disclosure prior to application, which leads to patent invalidation. Differentiation means that the product design should be significantly different from the existing design or the combination of existing design features. If there is no obvious difference between the appearance design and the existing design features, it does not conform to the legislative purpose of the patent law to encourage innovation, and does not belong to the object of protection of the patent law. If the design of applied works of art is protected by the Patent Law, the shape, pattern or combination of the product, as well as the combination of color and shape or pattern, must have novelty and distinction. In addition, design patent protection is different from copyright protection. In copyright protection, the copyright is automatically obtained after the creation of the work, without the need to perform any formalities such as registration. In the protection of design patent, it is necessary to go through the registration procedure to obtain the patent. Article 40 of the Patent Law provides that: Where it is found after preliminary examination that there is no reason for rejection of an application for a patent for design, the patent administration department under The State Council shall make a decision to grant the patent right for design, issue the corresponding patent certificate, and register and announce it at the same time. The patent right for design shall become effective as of the date of announcement. Any entity or individual, without the permission of the patentee, may not exploit its patent, that is, may not manufacture, offer to sell, sell or import for the purpose of production or business the same or similar product as or similar to the design of its product.

In 2013, Ferrol developed the Luna Facial cleanser, which has won the favor of consumers with its pioneering product design and has become a well-known product in the industry. Its unique appearance design has also become the object of counterfeiting and plagiarism. In September 2019, Firol filed a lawsuit with the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, claiming that Zhuhai Golden Rice Company, Zhongshan Golden Rice Company and Shanghai Zhuokan Company infringed on the design patent of Luna cleanser, and requested the three defendants to jointly compensate for economic losses and reasonable expenses of 3 million yuan. After the trial, the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court held that, compared with the appearance design of the accused infringing facial cleanser and Luna facial cleanser, the overall shape structure, the arrangement and distribution of bristles and raised arcs, and the position Settings of buttons and charging ports were basically the same. Although there are some differences between the alleged infringing facial cleanser and Luna facial cleanser patents, they do not have a substantial impact on the overall visual effect, and the design of the alleged infringing facial cleanser falls within the scope of protection of Ferrol's design patent right, constituting a design patent infringement. At the same time, the court issued an investigation order to Tmall and Alibaba, and found that the total number of infringing products sold was 358,074, and the total sales amount was 35,262,990 yuan. Finally, the court ordered the three defendants to immediately stop infringing on the design patent of LUNA cleanser, and the defendants Zhuhai Golden Rice Company and Zhongshan Golden Rice Company compensated Feruo Company for economic losses and reasonable expenses of 3 million yuan, and the defendants Zhuokang Company assumed joint and several liability for compensation within the range of 50,000 yuan.

Practical works of art are both practical and artistic, and their artistic elements may also constitute the decoration of goods with certain influence under China's anti-unfair competition law. Article 6 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law stipulates that a business operator shall not engage in any of the following acts of confusion to cause people to be mistaken for another person's goods or to have a specific connection with another person: (1) Unauthorized use of the same or similar marks of the name, packaging and decoration of a commodity that has a certain influence on another person; (2) "Therefore, the decoration elements of practical artworks that meet the statutory conditions are protected by the Anti-Unfair Competition Law." If the applied artwork wants to obtain the protection of "commodity decoration with certain influence", it needs to meet the two conditions of "commodity with certain influence" and "decoration with significance". Otherwise, it does not constitute commodity decoration with certain influence and is not protected by the anti-unfair competition law. Article 1 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Civil Cases of Unfair Competition: "In determining a well-known commodity, the people's court shall make a comprehensive judgment taking into account such factors as the time of sale, the region of sale, the amount of sales and the object of sale of the commodity, the duration, extent and geographical scope of any publicity, as well as the protection of the well-known commodity." When the Anti-Unfair Competition Law was amended in 2017, the protection of commodity names, packaging and decoration was revised from "unique names, packaging and decoration of well-known commodities" to "commodity names, packaging and decoration with certain influence". Although the revised "Anti-Unfair Competition Law" has removed the limitation of "unique", as a commercial sign, commodity decoration should still have the significance of identifying the source of goods or services to obtain protection, and should not be a general decoration of relevant industries.

Concurrence of rights means that multiple rights exist in the same object, and their exercise may result in the same result. As far as applied art is concerned, its rights competition is mainly manifested in the same applied art may exist copyright, design patent, have a certain impact on the decoration of goods and other rights. Although there are some objections in the theoretical circle about whether the applied works of art can be granted multiple rights, it is an objective fact that the rights of applied works of art are conjoined. Article 2.6 of the Guidelines for the Trial of Copyright Infringement Cases of the Beijing High People's Court, issued by the Beijing High Court in April 2018, stipulates that "the original artistic aesthetic part of a work of applied art may be protected by the copyright Law as a work of fine art." If the patent law, trademark law and anti-unfair competition law can provide protection, it does not affect the litigant's claim to copyright law protection for the original artistic aesthetic part of it." The author believes that the right concurrence of applied works of art is not duplicate protection. There are substantial differences in legal interests protected by copyright, design patents, and decoration that have a certain impact on goods. Copyright protects the originality of the work, focusing on whether the work is independently created by the author, but not whether the work is original. Design patent protects the innovation of product design scheme, which focuses on the novelty of design, but does not ask the originality of design. Anti-unfair competition protects the proper order of competition, which is concerned with whether it leads to confusion, rather than asking about the novelty of the product decoration. In addition, in judicial practice, for some specific elements, such as trademark patterns, there will also be copyright, trademark rights and certain influence on the decoration of goods. On the issue of the concurrence of the rights of practical works of art, the law of our country does not stipulate the way of dealing with the concurrence of rights. In judicial practice, in view of the uncertainties in the identification of Copyrights of applied artworks, design patents and decoration of certain well-known commodities, right holders often assert two or more rights together in litigation to avoid the risk of losing the lawsuit due to the instability of rights. According to Article 1.4 of the Guide to the Trial of Copyright Infringement Cases of the Beijing Higher People's Court, in the same case, where the plaintiff claims both copyright infringement and violation of Article 2 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law for the same alleged infringement, the case may be tried together; If the plaintiff's claim can be supported according to the copyright law, Article 2 of the Anti-unfair Competition Law is no longer applicable to the trial; If the plaintiff's claim cannot be supported according to the copyright law, it can be tried according to Article 2 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law if it does not conflict with the legislative policies of the copyright Law. This provision provides guidance for the judicial practice to deal with the issue of the rights of practical works of art competition.

In view of the possibility that applied works of art may be protected by copyright, patent law or anti-unfair competition law at the same time, and the content of each right is different to some extent, the problem of conflict of rights will occur in specific cases. For example, the decoration protection of certain well-known goods has no fixed term, the patent protection period of design is 15 years, and the copyright protection period of legal person's fine art works is 50 years. According to the patent law, if the patent right of applied art design expires, it should enter the public domain and the public can use it freely. At this time, if copyright protection is continued based on the provisions of the patent law, there will be a conflict between the interests of public trust and the protection of copyright rights of the parties. As for the conflict of power of applied works of art, some people think that the patent enters the public resource domain when the patent expires, and it no longer has exclusivity and monopoly. The public can implement a patent that has entered the public domain based on the termination of public credibility of the patent right; If copyright protection continues to be granted, it will undermine the interest of public trust, so the exercise of copyright in useful works of art should be limited by the patent system. The other viewpoint holds that the law of our country does not prohibit the multiple protection of patent rights, Copyrights, etc.; The copyright and patent right of applied works of art are two independent rights, and the elimination of one right does not necessarily lead to the elimination of the other right. Therefore, even if the patent for the design of a practical work of art has lapsed, it can still be protected by copyright law.

In judicial practice, it is generally believed that copyright, patent right and decoration right conflicts affecting certain commodities exist separately and in parallel. In the unfair competition case of "Morning Light Pen Unique Decoration" [(2010) Minti Zi No. 16], the Supreme People's Court held that after the termination of the design patent right, the design does not naturally enter the public domain, and can also be protected against confusion in accordance with the provisions of the Anti-unfair Competition Law on the unique packaging and decoration of well-known commodities. Article 2.6 of the Guidelines for the Trial of Copyright Infringement Cases of the Beijing High People's Court, issued by the Beijing High Court in April 2018, also stipulates that "the original artistic aesthetic part of a work of applied art may be protected by the copyright Law as a work of fine art; If the patent law, trademark law and anti-unfair competition law can provide protection, it does not affect the litigant's claim to copyright law protection for the original artistic aesthetic part of it."