An industrial design is the ornamental aspect of an article. The design may consist of three-dimensional features, such as the shape of an article, or of two-dimensional features, such as patterns, lines or colors. In most areas of the world, such as in Japan and in the European Union, industrial designs are the subject of their own unique protection. This is not so in the United States where owners of industrial designs can resort to a combination of different types of protection: design patents, trade dress, and copyrights.
Design patents offer businesses many advantages. A design patent protects the design for an article of manufacture for a term of 14 years, and benefits from a presumption of validity during that term. On average, a design patent costs much less and takes substantially less time to obtain from the USPTO than utility patents. Thus, design patents can provide companies with a relatively quick and effective method of preventing a competitor from accessing a market by copying the design of a successful product. In the event of an infringement, the design patent owner can recover damages corresponding to the total profits from the sales of the infringing article. Injunctions (preliminary and permanent) are also available to design patent owners as relief from Federal Courts, as well as exclusion orders from the International Trade Commission.
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