新たな関連意匠制度の検討
Studies on the New Related Design System

鈴木 康平
Kohei Suzuki

日本知財学会誌Vol.18 No.3 p.90-111 (2022-3-20)
Journal of Intellectual Property Association of Japan Vol.18 No.3 p.90-111 (2022-3-20)

＜要旨＞
令和元年改正により関連意匠制度は大きく拡充された．本稿では，関連意匠制度の沿革を概観した後，新たな関連意匠制度の各条文の解釈を検討するとともに，意匠制度に及ぼす影響を検討した．新しい関連意匠制度の解釈については，概ね立法担当者による解釈，特許庁による運用に問題ないと思われるものの，10条4項の「関連意匠にのみ」の解釈の厳格化や，10条8項の適用除外の例外に基礎意匠の意匠権の消滅等を含むことを条文上明確にする改正が必要ではないかと考えられる．また，意匠制度に及ぼす影響として，①出願人が自己の先願意匠と非類似であることを主張することが少なくなることに起因する類似範囲の実質的拡大，②関連意匠制度と足並みをそろえた新規性喪失の例外規定の拡張可能性，③審査官等のミスによる無効理由を解消するために，本意匠の表示を追加することを認める訂正審判制度の導入可能性を検討した．
<Abstract>
With the 2019 revision of the Design Act, the related design system has been greatly expanded.　In this paper, I first reviewed the history of the related design system.　Second, I examined the interpretation of each article of the new related design system.　Although the interpretation of the system by the legislators and the operation by the JPO seems to be generally satisfactory, the interpretation of “only for related designs” in Article 10（4）needs to be tightened and Article 10（8）needs to be revised to clarify that the exceptions to the exemption include the extinguishment of the design right of a principal design. Finally, I examined the following three points as the impact on the Design Act.（1）substantial expansion of the scope of similarity due to the fact that the applicant will be less likely to claim that the design is dissimilar to the applicant’s earlier design;（2）possible expansion of the exception to lack of novelty in line with the related design system; and（3）possibility of introducing a trial for correction system that allows the applicant to add an indication of a principal design in order to eliminate the reason for invalidation due to an examiner’s error.

＜キーワード＞
意匠法, 関連意匠制度
<Keywords>
Design Act, Related Design System