Design Patents

Whether your products are found on a shelf or in the Cloud, design protection plays an important role in your company’s intellectual property portfolio. A design patent protects the ornamental design of an article or product, including its configuration, shape, surface ornamentation, or other features. Design patents are directed to the appearance of the product and do not cover its functional or utilitarian features; those are the province of utility patents. A well-built portfolio often uses both types of patent protection (in junction with other intellectual property rights) to guard how a product works and how it looks.

Knobbe Martens has a long-established track record of obtaining and enforcing design rights worldwide. Our design patent team develops cost-effective protection strategies that use every tool in the intellectual property arsenal to protect your designs and support your global business, marketing, and branding goals. We consistently rank among the top 10 firms in the nation for obtaining design patents.

Who We Help Acquire and Enforce Design Patents

Our design patent lawyers represent clients that range from emerging companies filing a first application to global brands managing large design portfolios across many markets. These clients turn to us to protect the look of consumer products, medical devices, electronics, apparel and other fashion merchandise, packaging, and graphical user interface designs at the heart of their software and connected products. Whatever the industry, we align each design patent strategy with the client’s product roadmap, competitive position, and budget.

We also understand that design patent protection often works best as part of a broader plan. We coordinate design filings with the firm’s trademark and brand protection and utility patent prosecution work to help protect a product’s appearance, brand, and underlying technology. This coordinated approach helps clients build layered intellectual property that is more difficult for competitors to design around.

Our lawyers possess substantial experience protecting and enforcing design rights across a wide range of products and industries, including:

• Aerospace, Defense & Autonomous Systems
• Automotive, Transportation & Powersports
• Consumer Products & Services
• Electronics & Semiconductors
• Fashion & Beauty
• Food & Beverage
• Housewares & Home Products
• Industrial Manufacturing
• Medical Devices & Procedures
• Packaging & Containers
• Pet Products
• Software & IT
• Sporting Goods & Recreation 
• Toys & Games
• Wearable Technology & Connected Devices
• Wellness, Spa & Recovery Products

Our Design Patent Services

Knobbe Martens’ design patent team guides clients through every stage of the design patent life cycle, from a first filing with the USPTO to global registration and enforcement.

Comprehensive Product Protection

The appearance of a product can often be protected through more than one form of intellectual property. We counsel clients on how design patents work alongside trademark, trade dress, copyright, and international design and utility model rights to build complete protection for a product’s look. By mapping the available options early, we help clients choose the mix of rights that best fits the product and the market.

Continuation Design Patent

Our design patent lawyers use continuation applications to protect variations of a design, to capture different portions or embodiments of a product, and to keep a family of applications pending as a product line grows. This approach gives clients flexibility to respond to competitor products and the ability to strengthen their design patent protection over time.

Design Patent Litigation

Sometimes, having a design patent is not enough and our clients need to enforce their rights. The firm’s patent litigation team enforces and defends design patents in federal district courts across the United States, before the USPTO, and at the International Trade Commission. Our design patent lawyers and litigators work together from the start, so the patents we obtain are prepared with enforcement in mind and the positions we take in litigation reflect a deep understanding of the underlying design.

Reissue Applications

When an issued design patent turns out to be too narrow or otherwise insufficient to protect a design, a reissue application can correct the error. We evaluate issued design patents for opportunities to broaden or repair a claim through reissue, and we prepare and prosecute reissue applications before the Patent and Trademark Office. This service helps clients preserve the value of a design patent that might otherwise be vulnerable to challenge or offer ineffective protection.

U.S. Design Patent Filings with Foreign Priority Claims

Companies that first protect a design abroad can extend that protection into the United States while preserving their earlier priority date. We prepare and file U.S. design patent applications that claim priority to foreign applications, coordinating with foreign counsel to keep filings consistent across jurisdictions. This work helps international clients secure design patent protection in the U.S. market as part of a coordinated global strategy.

USPTO Hague Convention Filings

The Hague Agreement allows an applicant to seek design protection in multiple countries through a single international registration of an industrial design. We help clients file through the USPTO under the Hague system, using it to streamline foreign filing and manage costs across a design portfolio. For many clients, a Hague filing is an efficient path to protecting a design in the United States and abroad at the same time.

Why Clients Choose Knobbe Martens

Clients choose Knobbe Martens because our design patent team pairs deep knowledge of design patent law with the technical background to understand the products behind the drawings. We prepare applications with the whole life of a design patent in mind, from prosecution before the USPTO through global filing and, when needed, enforcement.

Clients also value the breadth of the firm. Because our design patent practice sits alongside our industry-leading utility patent strategy and prosecution, trademark, and litigation teams, clients can obtain coordinated advice that protects the appearance, brand, and technology of a product together. This combination of design patent focus and full-service intellectual property capability helps clients get more value from every filing.