Summer Associate Michael Nathanson also contributed to this article. Since the inception of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) in 2012, design patents obtained a higher rate of favorable ...

The definition of a utility patent is a patent that covers “any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof.”[i] Utility patents ...

The legal system in the United States provides several venues for securing the protection of a design. The appearance of a product can potentially be protected by the following types of IP right: ...

“The notion of patent-eligible subject matter applies only to utility patents. As a result, the enforcement of design patents avoids this potential area of dispute and attendant risk of invalidation, ...

“Unfortunately, not nearly enough individuals and companies are seeking design patent protection. In 2019, for example, there were 46,847 design patent applications filed, which represents 7.01% of ...

Why should a company research old patents and published applications in an environment of new manufacturing technologies and design techniques? There are several reasons. First, a company can learn ...