Design protection offers you the possibility to use the phrase “patent pending” or “patent issued” with your design, depending if your patent has or has not already been issued. It also offers you the possibility to control who has the right to make, use or sell your design.
Obtaining a design patent can be a difficult and long process. That is why we offer you professional guidance and preparation, including a USPTO-registered patent attorney or agent which will guide you along the way and help you in preparing and filing your application. You will also benefit from the help and expertise of a professional illustrator which will draft your design according to USPTO requirements, making sure you have the best technical illustration for your application.
For all your life you have been in love with beauty and functionality. Nothing in your house is out of place and everything that is important has been adapted or improved by you to better serve its purpose. Your friends are always asking your advice when buying stuff for their homes, and for some time you have been actually modifying what they buy or building them useful objects from scratch. If this is the case, you are for sure destined to create incredible, nice and useful things. Maybe you have already gathered your ideas and sketches and you are planning to take a chance and sell it to somebody else than just your friends and neighbors. But before going nationwide or even local with your products and design, make sure your ideas are protected and nobody can steal them from you. Who knows, one of them might keep you financially safe for life, if you take the right steps.
There is more than one way to protect your rights and it is important to choose the right one. If your work can be considered as pertaining to an artistic class such as painting, sculpture, photography, etc., you can choose to register for copyright. The major disadvantage of registering for copyright is that you can lose your protection for any minor change to your work. You must also be careful to evaluate correctly the utilitarian function of your design. If your creation has obvious utilitarian functions, then it is less suitable for copyright protection and more suitable for design patent, which is intended to protect industrial articles. A design patent covers the aesthetic elements of your creation and it gives you the right to be protected against any other object that is substantially similar to yours.
The main advantage of a design patent is its broader scope which offers more protection than a copyright. Obtaining a design patent is also less complex than a utility patent, which is another way you could protect your creation. There are significant differences between inventions or creations that can be protected by copyright, design patent or utility patent. It is important to study each one and choose the most advantageous way to protect your creation.
You can use the evaluation questionnaires on our website to identify the best way to go in protecting your creation or you can contact us directly for more information.
| Who typically seeks this protection? | Copyright: Copyright protection is usually used by creative professionals such as artists, choreographs, authors, architects and so on. Trademark: Trademark protection is usually used by businesses and product owners. Utility patent: Generally a utility patent is used by inventors. Design Patent: Design patents are usually used by inventors and designers. |
| What does it protect? | Copyright: Copyright protection covers original works of authorship fixed in a tangible form, such as books, sound recordings, sculptures, architectural works, articles, songs, etc. It is important to note that an idea by itself cannot be protected by copyright if it doesn’t take a tangible form. Trademark: A trademark will protect any text or graphic element used to identify and distinguish a brand or a business (e.g. word, slogan, name, symbol, design). Utility patent: Utility patents are used to protect inventions that bring something new or improve the way something works (e.g. a machine, a process, a chemical composition). Design Patent: A design patent will offer protection for any ornamental design of an article of manufacture if the design does not directly influence the article's function. |
| What benefits does registration/filing include? | Copyright: By registering your creation for copyright you obtain legal evidence and public notice of your ownership. You can also bring suit in federal court if someone else is using your creation without your approval. Trademark: Registering your trademark offers you nationwide exclusive rights, provides you legal evidence, public notice of ownership, gives you the right to bring federal lawsuit in case of infringement and to use the ® symbol. Utility patent: A utility patent gives exclusive rights of use to its owner meaning that others don’t have the right to make, use, sell, or import the protected invention. Without a utility patent, the creator does not benefit from any form of protection. Design Patent: A utility patent gives exclusive rights of use to its owner meaning that others don’t have the right to make, use, sell, or import the protected invention. Without a utility patent, the creator does not benefit from any form of protection. |
| How long does it last? | Copyright: Registering a copyright offers your protection for the entire duration of your life and an additional 70 years. It cannot be renewed nor extended. Trademark: Technically, it is unlimited with the condition of being renewed every 10 years and to make sure the mark is in continue use. Utility patent: You can file for two types of utility patents: a provisional patent which is easier and cheaper to obtain, lasts for 1 year and offers the possibility of testing the invention on the market while being protected and a full non-provisional utility patent which lasts for 20 years. Design Patent: The protection offered by a design patent is for 14 years and cannot be renewed. |