Patent Law Practice Center

USPTO Issues Design Patent No. 700,000

The Department of Commerce recently had a ceremony at Langdon Education Campus in Washington, DC, commemorating the issuance of the 700,000^th design patent (see main image to the left). The design patent, titled Hand-held learning apparatus, was issued to LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: LF) on February 25, 2014, but the celebration ceremony was not held until March 26, 2014.

“Protecting and promoting our idea-driven economy is essential to keeping America open for business,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker. “The USPTO plays a major role in serving our nation’s innovators by granting them the intellectual property rights they need to secure investment capital, build companies and bring their products and services to the global marketplace.”

The ceremony also included the launch of a new Intellectual Property (IP) Patch developed as a joint project between the USPTO, the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital, and the Intellectual Property Owners (IPO) Education Foundation.

(more…)

A Design Patent Strategy for Portfolio Development

Once upon a time, one of the ways you could separate the unsavory underbelly of the patent industry from the legitimate operators was to look at who was directing clients to get design patents. Design patents have always been easy to obtain…indeed, far easier to obtain than a utility patent. But design patent rights are exceptionally weak. Nevertheless, over the past decade, design patents have continued to grow in numbers, and have proved to be an effective part of patent strategy, in some cases. If you have not considered advising clients to seek design patents, you really should consider the benefits.

(more…)

U.S. Design Patent Considerations For Chinese Companies

The following guest post was written by Foley & Lardner Partner Marshall J. Brown.

Like industrial design registrations and design patents in many countries, U.S.design patents can serve as an effective tool to prevent competitors, counterfeiters, and other parties from copying your company’s proprietary designs. While the process for obtaining a U.S. design patent is fairly straightforward, there are several aspects to design patents that are unique to the United States. Many of these features provide applicants and patent holders with valuable benefits not available elsewhere, while others place particular burdens on inventors and attorneys. These issues need to be recognized when maneuvering through the process of obtaining a design patent. The following discussion focuses on a few of the aspects unique to the U.S. design patent system.

1. The 12-month grace period. A U.S. design patent application may be filed up to 12 months after the design is first described in a printed publication, is in public use in the United States, or is offered for sale in the United States. This provides companies with the opportunity to determine whether a product will be sufficiently successful to warrant the investment in a U.S.design patent. (more…)