From the Coca-Cola Bottle to the Apple iPhone Home Screen—Strategic Use and Global Perspectives of Design Patents

VW Bug. Nike Air Jordans. Oakley sunglasses. Ford headlamps. Viagra. Major companies have used design patents for more than a hundred years to protect their most important designs. But design patents are not just limited to these famous products—companies of all sorts use design patents to protect against counterfeiters and copycats, as well as to protect replacement parts revenue. With some of the highest stakes patent cases (like Apple v. Samsung) involving design patents, filing for design rights is an astute business precaution and portfolio strategy for even more modest budgets. Please join our panel discussion with private and in-house practitioners to learn more about patenting designs across product lines, including graphical user interfaces, and their significance in overall business plans.

Topics to be addressed include:

• Recent updates to U.S. practice, including changes associated with title amendments, possible solutions to USPTO printing issues, and the role of secondary considerations in design patent obviousness analysis
• How design can be used by rights holders to combat counterfeiting
• Overview of global design law, with five crucial distinctions to understand when filing design rights worldwide

Recorded: View On Demand

Speakers:
Elizabeth Ferrill
Jeffrey Smyth