I am curious to find this out also.

I am sure some inventor has successfully licensed a design patent. But if you’ve read other threads on the topic, you should be aware of limitations. For example, this is never a situation where you file for a design patent instead of a utility patent – anything that could be protectable by a utility patent is not protectable by a design patent, and vice versa. If filing a design patent wouldn’t make sense if you were also filing a utility patent, the fact that you will not be filing a utility patent shouldn’t change that much at all. That’s the red flag for me here, but anyways…

There are always exceptions, but generally, design patents provide a trademark-esque sort of protection. Trademarks are usually only valuable once that value has been built from the ground up, and consumers “know the name,” or the logo, or whatever. It is actually possibly to develop trade-dress protection – a type of trademark protection related to product and/or packaging design. But to develop this, relevant consumers need to come to associate the design specifically with your company, and this can take years (for more info Google “trade dress”).

Situationally, where a design patent can be truly valuable, is where it might be used to keep similar designs off the market during early stages of the product life cycle, which can ease the possibility of generating relevant trade dress protection before the end of the design patent’s 14 year term. Like trademark protection, trade dress protection generally doesn’t expire, as long as a product stays on the market.

I don’t think that answers your question, but hopefully it’s at least helpful. My bad for not noticing the OP until about 10 days late…

Thanks for your helpful answer, Criteriond!

Thanks for the response. So if I cannot get the utility due to obviousness, neither could someone else. Would that make it worthwhile to at least have a design patent and take my chances that some major companies would be intrigued enough to use it versus redesigning it. Its for packaging.

A design patent would only cover the physical shape and design of a product. It wouldn’t cover a product’s function or moving parts. Therefore, unless the shape and design are crutial to the way in which the item functions, a design patent may not be worth obtaining.

Susan, you are quite correct. You need to know what kind of patent you are needing when you go to anyone for a service. Because if you don’t, they aren’t lying to you when they say you can get it patented that way, but that doesn’t mean that type of patent is the protection you were seeking. It’s like putting regular gas versus premium gas in your car. The car may run with either gas, but which one is better for the life of the engine?

http//www.rogerbrown.net

A claim writing question for everyone here, claim writing should be easy if it is done as directed. yes??
Put all prior art in preamble, stick in a transition, and then put in elements or features or whatever that are unique to your own design.
you could do it all in one claim ideally.
problem is I think with most patents is, I never see anybody put much in the preamble why is this,
it would make the whole thing clearer if they did, or have I lost the plot??