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Enough Is Enough: Time To Eliminate Design Patents And Rely On More Appropriate Copyright And Trademark Protection For Product Designs, Daniel Harris Brean
Enough Is Enough: Time To Eliminate Design Patents And Rely On More Appropriate Copyright And Trademark Protection For Product Designs, Daniel Harris Brean
Daniel Harris Brean
Product designs can be protected under all three of the patent, trademark, and copyright laws. This is because product designs comprise original ornamentation, can serve as indicators of source in the marketplace, and constitute works of art in their own right. This paper juxtaposes the three options for protecting product designs and shows that the requirements for protection and scope of protection under each statutory framework are in many respects strikingly similar, though each has some important unique limitations. Looking back to the historical origin of design patents, it appears that the core purposes of the design patent system – …