問23
頻出度★★★
ソフトウェア製品において, 意匠法による保護の対象となるものはどれか。
平成25年度 秋期 ITパスポート試験 問23
ストラテジ系法務 › 知的財産権
This question's explanation and your answers so far.
解説
問 23
Incorrectア
“An idea realized by the software product” is the idea (a technical concept) itself, not the external design of an article, so it is outside the scope of the Design Act. The Copyright Act likewise protects expression and does not protect ideas. What can protect it as a technical concept, when the requirements are met, is the field of the Patent Act (inventions).
Incorrectイ
“The product name of the software product” is a sign (a naming) used to distinguish one’s own goods and services from those of others, and the law that protects it is the Trademark Act. A name is not the shape, patterns or colors of an article, so it does not fall under the protection of the Design Act.
Incorrectウ
“The content described in the software product’s operation manual” is expression in the form of text, and it is protected by the Copyright Act as a work. The external design of the manual as a physical booklet would be another matter, but its “described content” is not the external design of an article, so it is not an object of the Design Act.
- エ
正解 The correct answer is エ, “The design of the package that holds the software product.” What the Design Act protects is “the shape, patterns or colors of an article, or any combination of these, that creates an aesthetic impression through the sense of sight” — that is, the external design of an industrial product. A software product itself is an intangible thing, namely a program, so it is not a direct object of the Design Act; however, the package (box or case) that holds it is a real article, and its external design can be protected under the Design Act through design registration. In other words, the dividing line is: within a software product, what the Design Act applies to is the design of the article that wraps the product.
ここがポイント
- What the Design Act protects is “the external design of an article — its shape, patterns, colors and the like — that creates an aesthetic impression through the sense of sight.” In the software context, what falls under it is not the program itself but the design of the package (box or case).
- Keep the division of intellectual property law fields in mind: ideas (technical concepts) = the Patent Act; identifying signs such as product names and logos = the Trademark Act; expression such as programs and documents = the Copyright Act; the external design of an article = the Design Act.
用語