In my previous post I discussed a little bit about patents.  There is also other intellectual property law that you have to watch out for when doing product development.  Just because you purposely make your product so that it does not violate another patent, that does not mean that it doesn't violate some other intellectual property.  One common type of intellectual property is called 'design patents.'

There are two types of patents.  The first type is called a utility patent.  This is the type of patent that most of us are familiar with.  The less common, less useful type of patent is a design patent.  This type of patent is for a product that does not necessarily have a new original functional element that nobody has ever seen before.  In other words, it is not a new invention.  Instead, it is for products that have an original design, a design that nobody as ever seen before.

Here is an example of a mailbox that looks like a fish.  There is no new invention here.  It functions exactly like a normal non-fish mailbox would.  However, the maker of this mailbox very likely has a design patent on the mailbox.  This would keep you or me from taking this mailbox, making a mold of it, and copying it exactly and selling the exact same copy of it.  We could make another type of fish mailbox, for example, we could make a swordfish mailbox.  The reason nobody has made a swordfish mailbox before is because the sword would keep poking the mail carrier as they tried to deliver the mail

Seriously, you could take this mailbox, and make the fins a little different, and then you would not be violating the design patent.  Design patents are very specific.  If somebody changes the design just a little bit, then they are no longer violating the patent.  You can tell if somebody has a design patent because the patent number shown on the product begins with a letter 'D.'  If you have a patent on a product then you are required to list that somewhere on the product in order to claim patent protection.

Furthermore, the US Patent and Trademark office won't issue design patents on obvious  designs.  If you tried to get a design patent that had an ordinary shape, like a mailbox that looked like every other mailbox you've ever seen, the USPTO would deny the patent.  There has to be some unique original design element to the product before the USPTO will grant a design patent.

For the most part, when doing product development, it is pretty easy to get around another product like yours with a design patent.  Simply change the design a little bit.  You have to be a little bit careful here, because it has to be obvious that you changed the design.  Somebody looking at the fish mailbox would have to be able to spot the differences in a reeasonable amount of time.  The problem, as we discussed in the previous post is with the more well known type of patent, the utility patent.  This is the one that will require lots of research to make sure your product is not violating some patent.