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ARTICLE · 09 SEPTEMBER 2021

No Soup For You! Partial Display Design Patent Found Obvious

Jones Day
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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.

United StatesIntellectual Property

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 between that evidence and the design's merits.  These legal standards seem simple enough, but they can be difficult to apply as reflected in the Federal Circuit's recent decision in Campbell Soup Co. v. Gamon Plus, Inc., Nos. 20-2344 and 21-1019 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 19, 2021).

The appeals were about the patentability of partial designs of the iQ Maximizer soup can display:

1109946a.jpg 1109946b.jpg
U.S. Patent No. D612,646 (claim in yellow) iQ Maximizer Commercial Embodiment

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