01
Consumer electronics accessories
Mounts, cases, cables, and charging hardware. Product cycles are short, so speed to a granted design patent matters more here than in slower fields.
A design patent protects how a product looks, and the drawings are the claim.
Clients arrive asking for a utility patent when what actually sells the product is its appearance and its name. A design patent plus a registered trademark often protects a consumer business better, and costs less, than a utility filing on a mechanism nobody is copying.
Drawings from expired US patents. Lit: US D132,182, Frederick M. Jones, Design for an Air Conditioning Unit, filed 1941, granted 1942.
The drawings do the work a claim usually does.
A utility patent describes the invention in words. A design patent shows it, and the scope of protection is whatever the figures depict.
That makes the drawing set the whole engagement. Which views are filed, which features are shown in solid lines as claimed, and which are shown in broken lines as unclaimed environment together decide how far the patent reaches. Broken lines are how a filing covers a shape without tying it to one exact product.
Our managing partner examined applications at the USPTO for seventeen years and both of our attorneys hold mechanical engineering degrees, so reading a drawing set is the part of this work we do without translation.
Utility and design, side by side
- A utility patent covers how something works; a design patent covers how it looks
- A utility patent lasts twenty years from filing; a design patent lasts fifteen years from grant
- Utility patents carry maintenance fees; design patents carry none
- Design applications are usually examined faster and cost less
- The same product can carry both, and often should
Three categories where appearance does the commercial work.
These are the categories where appearance is doing the commercial work, and where we see copying happen fastest.
02
Oral care and personal care
Applicators, dispensers, brush and head geometry, and the packaging that carries the brand. Usually a combined utility, design, and trademark strategy.
03
Textiles and home goods
Closures, constructions, and surface patterns, where a utility claim to the construction and a design claim to the appearance reach different competitors.
Questions we get about design patents.
What is a design patent?
A design patent protects the ornamental appearance of an article of manufacture. It covers what the product looks like, not what it does or how it is made.
Because the protection is visual, the application is mostly drawings. There is a single claim, and it refers to the figures rather than describing the design in words.
How long does a design patent last?
A design patent filed on or after 13 May 2015 lasts fifteen years from the date it is granted. Applications filed before that date ran fourteen years from grant.
Design patents carry no maintenance fees, so nothing further is owed to the USPTO once it issues. That is a meaningful difference from a utility patent, which needs three maintenance payments across its term.
How do I get a design patent?
The application is prepared around a formal drawing set showing every view needed to define the design, filed with the USPTO, and examined. If the examiner raises an objection, most commonly about the drawings themselves, it is answered in the same way as any office action.
Design applications are typically examined faster than utility applications, though the exact wait varies with the USPTO's workload.
How much does a design patent cost?
Less than a utility patent, in both parts of the bill. Attorney fees are lower because there is no lengthy specification to write, and USPTO fees are lower with no maintenance fees afterward. The formal drawings are usually the largest single line item.
Small and micro entities pay substantially reduced USPTO fees. We quote each stage before starting it.
Can you patent a clothing design?
The ornamental appearance of a garment can be the subject of a design patent, and a novel construction or closure may separately support a utility patent. What a design patent will not do is protect a general style or an idea for a look.
Fashion also leans on trademark and trade dress more than most categories, so the right answer here is usually a combination of filings.
Should I file a design patent or a utility patent?
It depends on what a competitor would copy. If they would copy the shape, file a design patent. If they would build their own version to do the same job, you need a utility patent, because a design patent does not reach a different-looking product that works the same way.
When both are true, both filings are worth making, and we will say plainly when we think only one of them is.
General information, not legal advice. Terms and fees stated here reflect current USPTO rules and can change. Nothing on this page creates an attorney-client relationship.
Send us photographs of the product.
Images are enough to start. We will tell you whether the appearance, the mechanism, or the name is the asset worth protecting first.