As mentioned above, innovation is the key to social development, but also the key to enterprise development. For the consumer goods industry, product innovation is mainly reflected in the trademark, appearance and product formulation three aspects. The innovation of product trademark and product appearance is more the innovation of the external components of the product, while the innovation of product formula is the innovation of the internal technical components of the product. For food, medicine, cosmetics and other consumer goods industry, product formula competition is the key to the competition between competing products. Product formula is an important competitive resource for enterprises, product formula protection is not in place, enterprises will face a huge commercial risk for others to do wedding clothes, to a large extent affect the realization of business purposes of enterprises. Therefore, product formula protection is an important part of enterprise intellectual property protection. On the basis of discussing the intellectual property protection of trademark and product appearance in consumer product innovation, this paper mainly discusses the intellectual property protection of product formula.

Patent protection is the strong protection of product formula intellectual property protection. Product formulation innovation is an important part of consumer product innovation such as food, medicine and cosmetics. Product formulation refers to the raw materials and additives used in the production of the product and the amount used. Product formula is different from product composition, product composition is only the type of raw materials used in the product, and does not contain key information such as the amount of raw materials used, so the product formula is more critical to the enterprise from the perspective of commercial value. The protection of product formulations by enterprises can be achieved by applying for invention patents. An invention is a new technical solution to a product, method or improvement thereof. Once a patent right has been granted for an invention, no entity or individual may, in principle, exploit the patent without the permission of the patentee, that is, make, use, promise to sell, sell or import the patented product for production or business purposes, or use the patented process, or use, promise to sell, sell or import the product directly obtained by the patented process. It can be seen that the protection of invention patents on product formulations is a strong protection of national public power. If a product formulation wants to obtain an invention patent, it needs to meet the legal conditions, that is, it has three conditions of novelty, creativity and practicality. Novelty means that the invention does not belong to the prior art, that is, it does not belong to the public at home and abroad before the date of application; Nor has any entity or individual filed an application with the patent administration department under The State Council for the same invention before the filing date, which is recorded in the patent application documents published after the filing date or in the patent documents published after the filing date. Creativity means that the invention has outstanding substantive features and significant progress compared to the prior art. Utility means that the invention can be manufactured or used and can produce a positive effect. If the formula of the product meets the above three conditions, the enterprise may apply to the National Patent Office for registration as an invention patent, and then enjoy the exclusive right to the product formula, and prohibit the use of competing products.

Patent protection of product formulations is a double-edged sword. As far as product formulation is concerned, although patent protection is a kind of strong protection, it also has certain disadvantages. Patents have the characteristics of openness, timeliness and regionality. According to the Patent Law of the People's Republic of China, where the patent administration department under The State Council has received an application for a patent for invention and, after preliminary examination, finds that it meets the requirements of this Law, it shall publish it no later than 18 months after the date of filing. The patent administration department under The State Council may, upon the request of the applicant, publish the application at an early date. At the same time, worldwide patent protection is time-dependent. The patent Law of our country stipulates that the term of patent right for invention shall be twenty years, counted from the date of filing. I believe that many people have drunk Coke, Coke this carbonated beverage compared to other fruit drinks more profitable. The Coca-Cola brand is the dominant brand of Coke, with 1.7 billion consumers around the world drinking Coca-Cola products every day, and approximately 19,400 drinks are sold every second. However, Coca-Cola's formula protection does not adopt patent protection. Why is that? Because the publicity and timing of patent protection is unacceptable to the Coca-Cola Company. Once the product formula is registered as a patent, it means that the product formula is disclosed, and the patent is only protected in a specific area and for a specific period of time, after which the patent loses its strong protection. Therefore, after applying for the registration of the Coca-Cola product formula as a patent, competing products can publicly study the Coca-Cola formula, or free use the patented formula to produce the same product for sale in the market after the expiration of the patent term. Clearly, this is a situation that Coca-Cola does not want to see. As a result, the Coca-Cola Company gave up its patent protection on the product formula.

The trade secret protection of product formula is another window of product formula protection. What is a trade secret? Trade Secrets refer to technical information and business information that are not known to the public, can bring economic benefits to the right holder, are practical and have been kept confidential by the right holder. Obviously, the category of trade secrets includes but is not limited to product formulations. Trade secrets are the property rights of enterprises, related to the competitiveness of enterprises, vital to the development of enterprises, and some even directly affect the survival of enterprises. Compared with patents, trade secrets have no legal period of protection, and the product formula will not be disclosed, let alone leaked. The protection of Coca-Cola's soda drink formula is achieved through trade secrets. Of course, the trade secret protection of product formulation also has its own shortcomings. Although the trade secret protection of product formula does not need to disclose the product formula, it is a weak protection in terms of the intensity of protection. The strong protection of patents is mainly manifested in: After a patent is granted for a product formula, in principle, no entity or individual may, without the permission of the patentee, exploit the patent, that is, manufacture, use, promise to sell, sell or import the patented product for production and business purposes, or use the patented process, or use, promise to sell, sell or import the product directly obtained in accordance with the patented process. Under the strong protection of the patent, the same product formula obtained by the competitor through its own research and development can not be used, and the same formula is absolutely excluded. Weak protection of trade secrets is mainly reflected in: for the product formula in the category of enterprise trade secrets, as long as the competing products do not obtain the formula of the right holder through theft, inducement, coercion or other improper means, but through their own research and development and other legitimate means to obtain the product formula, it is legitimate. Therefore, as far as the protection of the trade secrets of the product formula is concerned, the product formula does not need to be disclosed, but whether it can effectively protect the product formula depends on the confidentiality measures and confidentiality intensity of the enterprise. More enterprises should take appropriate confidentiality measures for product formulations through private efforts, including but not limited to signing a written confidentiality agreement with product formulations research and development personnel, signing a written non-competition agreement with product formulations research and development personnel, and putting forward reasonable measures such as confidentiality requirements for employees who know product formulations or others who have business relations with trade secret rights holders.

To sum up, patent is an effective and strong protection for product formulation intellectual property protection in consumer product innovation. However, trade secret protection is not an adjunct and simple supplement to patent protection, but has independent value and importance, and even complementary to patents. Trade secret protection has been highly valued by rights holders including multinational corporations and western countries. At present, China's trade secret protection system is becoming more and more perfect, consumer goods operators can consider and adopt in the protection of intellectual property rights of product formulations.