I had the opportunity to review the recently published Comparative Global Design Law, edited by Elizabeth D. Ferrill. The book provides an overview of international design intellectual property law and then dives into the details for the major IP jurisdictions, including China, the European Union, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
This is a great book from the perspectives of either an educational read straight-through or referencing a particular chapter/geography as needed. I appreciated the clarity, and especially the consistency across regions, which is sometimes lacking when there are multiple contributors.
What was most valuable to me was the specific attention given to graphical user interfaces (GUIs) both in the content and the annotated illustrations. For example, the illustrations above are excerpts of how a representative user interface is specified within a design patent (in this example, within Japan). A similar approach is used to convey how physical product designs are documented across jurisdictions.
The one limitation with a work like this is currency, as design laws will change over time, albeit gradually. But it stands as a comprehensive and accessible reference for the state of the art as of 2020.
