by John Evans, Ph.D. | Sep 3, 2021 | Design Patents, Federal Circuit
By Kerry Barrett and John Evans – As with utility patents, a patentee can counter obviousness of a patented design by producing objective evidence that the design was non-obvious, like commercial success, copying, etc. But to be persuasive, a nexus must exist...
by John Evans, Ph.D. | Jun 29, 2021 | Design Patents, PTAB News
By John Evans and Callan Foran* These days, we generally think about inter partes review as a first option to challenge patentability. Rightly so. But don’t forget about ex parte reexamination (“XPR”). Even in the IPR era, patent challengers are still successfully...
by John Evans, Ph.D. | Apr 29, 2021 | Design Patents, PTAB News
By John Evans and Hannah Mehrle – On April 15, 2021, the PTAB issued a Final Written Decision in the LKQ Corp. case finding a design patent claiming a vehicle fender panel unpatentable as obvious. IPR2020-00064, Paper No. 39 (Apr. 15, 2021). The obviousness...
by John Evans, Ph.D. | Aug 10, 2020 | Claim Construction, Design Patents
By Clarissa Sullivan and John Evans The Patent Trial and Appeal Board recently designated as informative its decision instituting post-grant review and addressing the issues of design patent functionality in Sattler Tech Corp. v. Humancentric Ventures, LLC. No....
by John Evans, Ph.D. | Apr 27, 2020 | Design Patents, Other News
By Kerry Barrett and John Evans – Last October, the Federal Circuit reversed the PTAB’s decision that a challenged design patent was not obvious. Campbell Soup Co. v. Gamon Plus, Inc., 939 F.3d 1335 (Fed. Cir. 2019). We wrote about how the court applied a more...
by John Evans, Ph.D. | Oct 4, 2019 | Design Patents, Federal Circuit Appeal
By Kerry Barrett and John Evans Design patent obviousness requires a heavy threshold burden of proof. Challengers have to find a “primary reference,” i.e., prior art that has “basically the same” design characteristics as the claimed design. Below is an example of...
