But slowly, design patents are coming into vogue across a widening number of industries.
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This is rather different as design patents are really trademark law rather than patent.
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But skipping over that difference, the design patents are EU wide patents, not national ones.
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Last year, the PTO issued 21, 356 design patents, 65% more than the 12, 951 it issued in 2005.
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One sticking point was the device's surrounding bezel, which is prominent in one of Apple's design patents.
The EU has special design patents and the US system seems to have expanded to include them.
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Although it would have made even more when instead of design patents everyone asserted trademark and copyright.
But other experts worry that design patents in particular are often drawn too broadly and granted too easily.
Samsung cannot and presumably will not try to argue that Apple is willing to license its design patents.
Design patents have long been seen as "the red-headed stepchild of the intellectual property world, " according to one attorney.
In this respect, design patents can work well together with trade dress rights.
Apple had asked Koh to punish Samsung by ruling that Apple's phone design patents were valid, and had been infringed.
These are design patents: about the look and feel of the tablets, not about the methods by which they are reached.
"Design patents used to be in the backwaters of the patent system, " said Christopher Carani, a design-law expert and lawyer in Chicago.
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Samsung to set a precedent for design patents in the future.
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Design patents (as opposed to technical ones) are European Union wide.
Mr. Horvath: From the get-go we poured resources and money into protecting ourselves, from design patents to registering copyrights and trademarks in every country and language.
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Others doubt whether a Lululemon will provide much of a boost to the industry, partly because design patents provide protection only against exact copies or near copies.
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Such patents, called design patents, have "for too long been grossly underappreciated" by the fashion industry, said Perry Saidman, a design-law expert and lawyer in Silver Spring, Md.
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Attorneys have not really understood what design patents are about.
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This is an argument that has had especial success in the European Union where such design patents are taken more seriously than they are in many other places.
The idea of broad software and design patents has come under a lot of scrutiny recently, and many in the tech community are eagerly awaiting the results of Apple vs.
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The USPTO examination process for design patents used to take over a year, which would often exceed the life expectancy or actual lifespan of many designs in the rapidly changing world of fashion.
Big companies have the lawyers and the money to build ring fences of utility and design patents around their products so only the largest and best-financed competitors can even think of entering their markets, he said.
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If the Fashion Bill is enacted into law, designers would be well-advised to continue pursuing the foregoing copyright and trademark registrations, but would have to reconsider pursuing design patents based on cost considerations and whether the useful life of each relevant design is expected to last more than the three years of copyright protection provided by the Fashion Bill.
What Apple (and again Microsoft) does have is a number of design and utility patents.
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Apple presented its case first and called its last witness earlier this week, arguing that Samsung has infringed on both design and utility patents that cover the look and feel of its best-selling products and how they work.
Apple has accused Samsung of blatantly copying its design and infringing its patents.
Apple has accused Samsung of copying its design and infringing its patents.
In the suit, Apple asserts that Samsung is infringing seven patents related to user gestures like scrolling, pinching and zooming, and three patents on design.
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