Know About Design Patents

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Know About Design Patents

In order to obtain a design patent, the subject must be novel, just like a utility patent. There must not be any prior identical design. This also means that you must file within one year of your own publication of the design. Also, just like utility patents, design patents must be non-obvious. A design patent must not be obvious in light of prior art, however, unlike a utility patent, a design patent must not be utilitarian. You are only obtaining protection of the ornamental elements of the product, and not of the functional elements.

Further, design patents cannot be obtained for ornamental features that are not visible when the product is in use. The goal is to protect the aesthetic design of a thing, not the functions, unless the design must have non-functional aspects. Many machines do not have non-functional aspects. For many machines, everything about it is functional, but in today's design-oriented world, designers have influence over many things and often choose certain aesthetics in order to make their devices distinctive.

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/understanding-patents-a-deeper-dive/design-patents