Quiz 2--Design Patents Flashcards
Design patent general coverage
a design patent protects the ornamental appearance of an article of manufacture.
It can claim a portion of an article OR the entire article.
“Point of Novelty”
PON text provides that in an infringement lawsuit, the elements relied on as a basis for granting the design patent must appear in the accused device
Computer icons
Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs)
can be protected by design patents and trademarks
Broken lines
In a design patent, broken lines show the environment of a claimed design, but are not claim limitations.
In re Surgisil
2021 case
The Federal Circuit indicated that a claimed design IS limited to the particular article of manufacture identified in the claim.
This decision is expected to significantly limit an Examiner’s use of prior art references directed to items that are in completely different fields from the claimed device when rejecting a design patent application.
Calculating Damages in Design Patents
When calculating damages in a design patent case, the “article of manufacture” might be a component of a multicomponent product
OR
It might be the whole product
(Samsung v. Apple).
Sport Dimension Case
When looking at a design patent claim, one should look at “overall ornamentation” and cannot simply eliminate functional features.
“By eliminating structural elements from the claim, the district court IMPROPERLY converted the claim scope of the design patent from one that covers the overall ornamentation to one that covers individual elements.”
GENERAL PRACTICE TIP
If your client’s product has been in public use or on sale for more than a year, you usually should focus on trademark protection rather than utility or design patent protection due to the one year “public use” and “on sale” bars to patentability.
However, if your client has changed their design within the past few months, the new design might be patentable over the old design, in which case it might be possible to obtain a design patent.
