Recap On Design Patent Drawings

This post is a follow-up to our prior post To Seek Design Protection or Not, That is the Question! where we discuss situations where it is worth considering seeking a design patent.  Here we highlight takeaways from a USPTO Inventor Info Webinar (the "Webinar") held on September 21, 2017, that focused on design patent drawing requirements, as well as on other issues on design patents. The Webinar's slides can be found here.

As a brief recap, 35 U.S.C. § 171 states that "Whoever invents any new, original and ornamental design for an article of manufacture may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title."  Thus, the statute requires that a design be for an article (i.e., rather than a disembodied design, a design per se) and that the article have one or both of some surface ornamentation and configuration that differs this article from others.