The Patent Office is establishing a separate design patent bar for people to practice design patent prosecution in front of the USPTO. I am generally against this, because I believe it will lead to bad advice being given to inventors…
The scope of protection of a design patent is defined by the drawings presented therein. In that way, design patents can often seem like a very simple or straightforward form of protection: show some drawings in an application, file it,…
The design patent “Rocket Docket” program is the system the US Patent Office established to speed up the examination of design patent applications. Recognizing that design patents cover the external appearance of an item, and that this external appearance, contrasted…
A design patent protects the ornamental and aesthetic aspects of a functional item. Whereas a utility patent protects the parts of the item, the way its parts cooperatively move or operate together, how they are structured and arranged, etc., design…
More utility and design patents were issued in 2018 than in 2017.