Imagine That IP Law Blog

On the surface, design patents often look straightforward: a handful of drawings, one claim, and a short specification (description). But the recent path of Deckers Outdoor Corporation’s U.S. Design Patent No. D927,161 (161 Patent) shows how deceptively complex design-patent enforcement can become once a patent moves from prosecution to PTAB challenge to jury trial.

The ’161 Patent survived an inter partes review (IPR) challenge at the institution stage. Yet the same design patent later went to trial, where a jury found infringement but also found the patent invalid ... Read More ›

The February 2026 federal district court and ITC complaints filed by General Motors against various aftermarket parties allegedly working “in concert” in the automotive replacement-parts market portend a new chapter in design-patent enforcement litigation. They may also provide a testing ground for two important Federal Circuit decisions: Automotive Body Parts Ass’n v. Ford Global Technologies, LLC, (“ABPA”) in 2019, and LKQ Corp. v. GM Global Technology Operations LLC,) (“LKQ”) in 2024. In those decisions, the Federal Circuit confirmed, on the one hand, in ... Read More ›

Artificial intelligence (AI) is now a part of U.S. design patent examination, but not in the way some practitioners may expect. The latest public USPTO materials do not identify a new, post-DesignVision AI tool dedicated to design patent examination. Instead, the more important development appears to be that DesignVision has moved from a newly announced search tool to a routine part of the design examination workflow.

The USPTO launched DesignVision in July 2025 as “the first artificial intelligence (AI)-based image search tool available to design patent examiners” through ... Read More ›

On Tuesday, the Federal Circuit issued an en banc decision in LKQ Corp. et al. v. GM Global Technology Operations LLC, case number 21-2348 (Fed. Cir. May 21, 2024) (en banc) overruling decades long precedent for challenging design patents based on obviousness under 35. U.S.C. § 103.

The prior test, known as Rosen-Durling, required as a primary reference an earlier design that had "basically the same" visual impression as the patented design, to which features could be added from additional prior art designs that are "so related" to it that the appearance of features in one design ... Read More ›

A recent Federal Circuit decision in Larry G. Junker v. Medical Components, Inc., Martech Medical Products, Inc., 2021-1649, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 3647 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 10, 2022) serves as a reminder for businesses to carefully watch commercial activity with respect to the bar date for patent applications.

The subject of the appeal is Mr. Junker’s design patent claiming an ornamental design for a handle for an introducer sheath shown below with solid lines.

Mr. Junker accused the defendants of infringing the patented design. In response, the defendants countered in-part that the ... Read More ›

Uncertainty surrounding patent eligibility jurisprudence has been a thorn in the side of many patent applicants, patent holders, scholars, and judges for years, leading voices in the patent sector to issue repeated, though unavailing, calls for legislative action. Recent activity by lawmakers, however, suggests that rising innovation in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector may be viewed as a catalyst for change.

Central to the issue of patent eligibility is the framework set forth in Mayo Collaborative Services. v. Prometheus Labs, 132 S.Ct. 1289 (2012) and Alice v. CLS Bank ... Read More ›

Design patent protection is an under-utilized tool that can provide fifteen (15) or more years of protection at a fairly reasonable cost for the new and non-obvious ornamental appearance of different Articles, which can vary from consumer and industrial products to computer icons.  Once a design patent is issued, one study has shown that design patents provide a higher probability for obtaining an infringement verdict and a substantially lower chance of being found invalid than utility patents.  Accordingly, where appearance distinguishes a product from others in the ... Read More ›