In This Chapter

Design patents are a way to protect ornamental and cosmetic aspects of your inventions—not their function. Perhaps the most celebrated design patent ever granted is Number 11,023, issued on February 18, 1879, to Auguste Bartholdi on his design for a statue, “Liberty Enlightening the World,” one we call the Statue of Liberty.

So if your product has a unique appearance—and this is important to its success—a design patent can be a worthwhile investment. And it’s not an expensive one.

Think of the distinctive designs of a Mazda Miata, an iMac computer monitor, a bottle of Classic Coke, and Casio’s G-Shock watch, to mention a few products. Without a doubt, the look of these products contributes to their popularity. Design patents are taken out on such products to foil knock-off artists who, although not necessarily pretending to market the authentic item, trade on the goodwill and dress of the original product by causing confusion in the consumer’s mind.