Chapter 1500: Design Patents
The details of design patents are discussed here. Design patents protect the way an article “looks” as opposed to how an article “works” (which is provided in a utility patent). The design must be embodied in or applied to an article or manufacture, it cannot exist alone.
A few of the unique properties of design patents include that; they only have a 14 year term, maintenance fees are not required, provisional applications for designs may not be filed, and design patents only have one claim.
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This section references 35 U.S.C. 171 Patents for designs and 37 C.F.R. 1.151 Rules applicable.
A design patent application has essentially the elements required of an application for a utility patent. A claim in a specific form is a necessary element of a design patent application. A drawing is an essential element of a design patent application.
In design patent applications, ornamentality, novelty, nonobviousness enablement and definiteness are necessary prerequisites to the grant of a patent. The inventive novelty or unobviousness resides in the ornamental shape or configuration of the article in which the design is embodied or the surface ornamentation which is applied to or embodied in the design.
Patents for designs shall be granted for the term of fourteen years from the date of grant.
The term of a design patent may not be extended by reissue. This section further covers reissue of a design patent.
This section discusses the relationship between design patents, copyrights, and trademarks.
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