Mission Impossible: Can you block a design patent application? Design patent applications are not publicly viewable. It can be nearly impossible to figure out what design patent applications are pending. Suppose your competitor indicates that their product is patent-pending. If they filed a design patent application, you won’t be able to see it unless and […]
Articles Tagged: design patent
How to Deal with a Counterfeit Product or Claim
What is the difference between counterfeiting and trademark infringing? Is it fake? Whether or not a product is a counterfeit boils down to the degree of similarity. Are you dealing with a fraudulent imitation? If so, it might be a counterfeit. The difference between trademark infringement and counterfeiting is a matter of the extent of […]
Can you file a design patent to protect from infringement?
Can filing a design patent protect you from infringement? It depends. Patent professionals, including myself, constantly stress that a patent does not protect its owner from infringement. Anyone who has read my posts on the differences between patentability and infringement will understand this long-standing principle. You can own a patent and still infringe someone else’s […]
Design patent infringement: What is a substantially similar appearance?
What is the design patent infringement test? It’s simple to recite, but tricky to apply. The test for design patent infringement involves a visual comparison between the patented design and the accused product. Known as the ordinary observer test, the standard for determining design patent infringement basically asks whether the accused design would appear substantially […]
Patent rejected: What happens next?
Will your patent be rejected? Almost certainly for a utility patent, and probably not for a design patent. Here are statistics on whether your patent will be rejected. A nonprovisional utility patent application has a roughly 90% probability of at least one rejection. A design patent application has an approximately 86% chance of approval. Basically, […]
How can an Amazon seller use design patents?
How can an Amazon seller benefit from design patents? IP simply cannot be ignored when you’re selling on Amazon. A common misconception is that IP is not a factor when low-tech or no-tech products are involved. Don’t fall into that trap. Those who tend to ignore IP are the ones caught off guard when, for […]
How to Get a Better Design Patent
What makes a design patent better? Design patents are quite simple. So simple, in fact, that it can be easy to overlook certain nuances that can broaden the protection provided. Here’s a common scenario. You do a bit of research into the differences between a design and utility patent, and conclude that design is the […]
How to Get a Patent
Utility or design patent? In order to know how to get a patent, first determine the type of IP you need. Do you need a utility or design patent, or both? A simple way to tell is to focus on the unique features, and ask whether they are primarily functional or visual. If you have […]
Design patent failures: What can go wrong?
What are common design patent failures? Filing a design patent application doesn’t seem very complicated. Thankfully, there are no lengthy pages of descriptions and no claims that read like a foreign language. A design filing seems so simple. So what can go wrong? Let’s explore some common design patent failures. Failure to submit all required […]
How to Patent a Design
What does it take to patent a design? Before diving into how to patent a design, let’s first cover the why questions. Why do you want to get a design patent? Why is a design patent as opposed to a utility patent the right type of IP for your idea? Get these foundational questions answered […]