| 抄録 |
With the rapid progress of IT (Information Technology), protection by intellectual property rights has been expanding from tangible thing (hardware) to intangible thing (software). As far as the Japanese Patent Law and Trademark Law are concerned, the amended Laws are to come into force, focusing protection of computer programs. As to the Japanese Design Law, on the other hand, the [“Guidelines on treatment of delineation on liquid crystal displays (version dealing with the partial de-sign registration system)”] were made public on February 20, 2002. According to the Guidelines, protection of “the displayed images” on display screen, including GUI (Graphical User Interface), was realized under the partial design registration system. The Design Committee discuss, in this article, an outline of the Guidelines, problems concerning protection of “the displayed images” under the Japanese Design Law currently and an ideal of protection of “the displayed images” in the future. |
