Abstract
Design patent is a type of industrial design right that is granted on the ornamental design of a functional item. We analyzed domestic design patents that were applied from 1965 until 2008, to the field of functional clothing. Since the year 2000 the number of design patents of functional clothing progressively increased. Design patents applied to the functional clothing field includes sport wear (47%), working clothes (34%), and leisure wear (19%). Design development of the sports wear from the latter half of 1990's has shown a continuously increasing tendency. The most patent applications belonged to the companies(51.4%), followed by individual applicants (46.6%), and the universities or laboratories had the least number of applications (2.0%). In case of working clothes or the leisure wear, the number of design applications focusing on the functional characteristic is higher than that of aesthetic characteristic, however, the number of design applications focusing on the aesthetic characteristic is higher in sportswear.
