News & Analysis as of

Design Patent Patent Litigation Utility Patents

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

2024 Design Patents Year in Review: Analysis & Trends - Design Patents at the PTAB: 2024 in Review

Inter partes activity involving design patents at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) was relatively low in 2024. The PTAB rendered just two inter partes decisions involving design patents: Next Step Group, Inc. v....more

Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck, P.C.

Reviewing 2024's Crucial Patent Law Developments

As 2024 draws to a close, several crucial developments — some aimed at modernizing long-standing legal practices, others addressing emerging challenges — have reached patent law. Originally published in Law360 - December...more

Weintraub Tobin

Federal Circuit Changes Obviousness Test For Design Patents

Weintraub Tobin on

In a recent en banc decision, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has overruled its prior test for nonobviousness of design patent inventions, holding that design patents are subject to the same test as utility patents. LKQ...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

Design Patent Trends at the ITC – Mid-Year Update

Ten Section 337 Investigations were terminated in the first half of 2024. Of those ten investigations, two involved design patents. Although those investigations ended with the Commission issuing no remedial orders (including...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

Design Patents vs. Utility Patents: A Unique Advantage in Litigation

Need another reason to secure and enforce design patents? Design patents offer a unique additional remedy in district court litigation: profit disgorgement. While design patent owners may still pursue the traditional remedies...more

Sunstein LLP

Federal Circuit Upends Obviousness Test for Design Patents, Leaving Uncertainty and Potential Opportunity

Sunstein LLP on

On May 21, 2024, the Federal Circuit upended decades of precedent regarding design patents in its decision LKQ Corporation v. GM Global Technology Operations LLC. Sitting en banc, a panel of Federal Circuit judges overturned...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

Design Patents at the PTAB: Performance Gap Between Design and Utility Patents Highlights the Durability of Design Patents

Since the inception of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) in 2012, design patents obtained a higher rate of favorable results in Inter Partes Reviews (“IPRs”) and Post Grant Reviews (“PGRs”) than utility patents. For...more

Irwin IP LLP

After 40 Years, a Fundamental Change to Design Patent Law 

Irwin IP LLP on

LKQ Corp.1 v. GM Global Tech. Operations LLC, No. 21-2348 (Fed. Cir. May 21, 2024) - On May 21, 2024, the Federal Circuit overruled its long-standing Rosen-Durling obviousness test for design patents and replaced it with...more

Venable LLP

Federal Circuit Overrules Obviousness Test for Design Patents and Decades of Precedent

Venable LLP on

A recent en banc Federal Circuit decision overruled the unique test for obviousness of design patents and advised that the same analysis should apply to both utility patents and design patents. LKQ Corporation v. GM Global...more

Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery LLP

Federal Circuit Overrules Previous Obviousness Rosen-Durling Test for Design Patents

On May 21, the Federal Circuit, in an en banc decision of LKQ Corp. v. GM Global Tech. Operations LLC, has overruled the Rosen-Durling test applied in evaluating obviousness of design patents. Instead, the CAFC applied the...more

Womble Bond Dickinson

USPTO Issues Updated Examination Guidance After Federal Circuit Overhauls Test for Design Patent Obviousness

Womble Bond Dickinson on

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a Memorandum to the Corps of Patent Examiners (the “Guidance”), attempting to provide clarity in the wake of the Federal Circuit’s highly anticipated en banc...more

Lathrop GPM

Federal Circuit Overrules Decades-Old Test for Design Patent Obviousness

Lathrop GPM on

On May 21, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, sitting en banc, overruled its longstanding test used to assess the obviousness of design patents....more

Fenwick & West LLP

En Banc Federal Circuit Overrules Longstanding Test for Design Patent Obviousness

Fenwick & West LLP on

On Tuesday, the en banc Federal Circuit released its highly anticipated decision in LKQ v. GM Global Technology Operations LLC, rejecting as “improperly rigid” the previous standard for evaluating whether a design patent is...more

Vinson & Elkins LLP

Re-“Designing” a New Standard: The Federal Circuit Aligns Obviousness Test for Design and Utility Patents

Vinson & Elkins LLP on

In a considerable shift in the law, the Federal Circuit has discarded the long-standing test for determining whether a design patent is invalid as obvious, in favor of the more flexible obviousness test historically applied...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

ITC Update: Takeaways from Certain Replacement Automotive Lamps

The Commission recently reversed the ALJ’s determination that the economic prong of the domestic industry requirement was satisfied and thereby found that there had been no section 337 violation in Certain Replacement...more

Williams Mullen

Patent Litigation Update 2024

Williams Mullen on

While the number of filed patent cases is down, it is still the most prevalent type of IP claim. In 2023, there were 3,111 patent cases filed, following a downward trend since 2021, with the Western District of Texas still...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

Federal Circuit IP Appeals: Summaries of Key 2023 Decisions (8th Edition): LKQ Corp. v. GM Global Tech. Operations LLC, 2023 WL...

LKQ filed an inter partes review challenging GM’s auto fender design patent. LKQ was once a licensed repair part vendor for GM. But, after renewal negotiations fell through in early 2022, GM informed LKQ that the parts LKQ...more

McDermott Will & Emery

PTO Creates Separate Design Patent Bar

McDermott Will & Emery on

The US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) published its final rule, creating a separate design patent bar where admitted design patent practitioners will practice in design patent proceedings only. (88 Fed. Reg. 78644 (Nov. 16,...more

Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt PC

Latest Federal Court Cases - July 2023

Medytox, Inc. v. Galderma S.A., Appeal No. 2022-1165 (Fed. Cir. June 27, 2023) In this week’s Case of the Week, the Federal Circuit upheld an application by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board of its Pilot Program...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

Federal Circuit to Sit En Banc to Hear LKQ v. GM Case on Obviousness for Design Patents

For the first time in over five years, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will be hearing a patent case en banc. The Court has agreed to hear LKQ Corporation v. GM Global Technology Operations LLC, which...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

2022 Design Patents Year in Review: Analysis and Trends: International Design Law: Global Law and Policy

Design protection continues to be a priority for governments around the world. Global design protection is gradually becoming more modern and harmonized. Building on earlier developments, China made progress to implement...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

2022 Design Patents Year in Review: Analysis and Trends: ITC: Design Patents Continue to Outperform on Obtaining Remedies at the...

Last year, in our inaugural issue of “The Year in Review,” we reported that since the landmark jury verdict in the IP litigation between Apple and Samsung in 2012, which awarded more than $1B to Apple for infringement of...more

Jones Day

Federal Circuit Tables Scrutiny of Rosen under KSR

Jones Day on

A recent post flagged LKQ v. GM as a potential watershed moment in design patent validity law, calling into question whether In re Rosen, long-standing obviousness precedent, comports with the Supreme Court’s decision in KSR....more

Weintraub Tobin

Obviousness Test for Design Patents Unchanged

Weintraub Tobin on

Design patents and utility patents are two different things. Design patents protect ornamental designs, such as the shape of a perfume bottle or the design on flatware. Utility patents protect four categories of functional...more

Polsinelli

Design Patent Holders Rejoice, but Challengers Face an Uphill Battle

Polsinelli on

Design patent holders can rejoice, for now, as the Federal Circuit reinforces its stance on the invalidity of design patents based on obviousness. On January 20, 2023, the Federal Circuit upheld a decades old rule that...more

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