Tag: broken lines

When filing a design patent application, you should consider whether the design has unimportant features or sides. Then the design patent application can be prepared to take this into account.

For example, Super-Sparkly Safety Stuff, LLC sued Skyline USA, Inc. alleging it of infringing Design Patent D731,172S (‘172 Patent).

The complaint shows the following image of Skyline’s alleged pepper spray infringing product. The product does not have rhinestones on the bottom as compared to the cylindrical side.

However the design of the ‘172 Patent has rhinestones on the bottom, as shown in figure 3.

The district court granted summary judgement of non-infringement finding that the Skyline product did not infringe the ‘172 patent.

The court said that “the accused product has no rhinestones on the canister bottom … This difference is significant, particularly given the relatively simple and limited elements of the product design, and would be obvious to an ordinary observer.”

You might think that the bottom of the product is not that important and differences in the bottom should not weight heavily when comparing an alleged infringing product to a design patent. But this case shows that even the bottom of a product might be important in a design patent case.

If the bottom or the back of your design is not important, then consider whether it should not be claimed by presenting it in broken lines.

In this case, it may be that the bottom is important because the bottom is where the key ring attaches on the pepper spray product. Therefore, the bottom could be in view to the user often in normal use.

Citation: Super-Sparkly Safety Stuff, LCC v. Skyline USA, Inc., 3:18-cv-00587-N (N.D. Tex 2020). Super-Sparkly appealed and the appeal is pending.

Hat tip to Design Law.

Apple recently was granted US Design Patent D861,014 for an electronic device with graphical user interface. The patent is directed to the user interface for a smart watch. Below is figure 1.

Apple kept the time and date in solid lines claiming them rather than making the time and date in broken lines. Providing the date and time in broken lines would have made those elements unclaimed and would not have limited the claimed design.

However, including the date and time might not be much of a limitation in terms of the actual date and time displayed. First, any competitor device with the same vertical stripe pattern and time in the upper right location would show 10:09 twice a day. The old adage applies that a broken clock is correct twice a day. Further, it is likely that Wednesday will fall on the 23rd of the month every now and then.

Presenting the date and time in solid lines does limit the claimed design here. But maybe not greatly in terms of the actual time of 10:09 or the date of Wednesday the 23rd. Instead, the limitation probably is more in terms of the location and presentation of the date and time.

The original application that resulted in the above patent contained drawings showing the date and time in broken lines as well as solid lines. But, Apple amended the application to focus on the non-broken line version. There is a continuation patent application filed where Apple might be pursing the broken line version, which is shown below. If Apple obtains a patent on the broken line version below, it will have hedged its risk that the solid line version is too limiting.

The Samsung Galaxy S 4G smartphone on the right has a different back shape and lacks a circular home button on the front as compared to the iPhone in Figures 19 and 24 of U.S. Patent No. D593087 (“the ‘087 patent”), shown on the left. But a jury determined that the Galaxy infringed the ‘087 patent in the case of Apple v. Samsung, No. 200-cv-01846 (N.D. Cal. 2011). Did the jury ignore those different elements of the Galaxy phone?

Yes. And they were right to ignore them.

Apple drafted the ‘087 patent in a way that requires that the differences in the back shape and the home button be ignored. Apple did that by providing those features in broken lines.

The solid lines indicate the part of design of the iPhone that Apple claimed, which include rounded rectangular bezel and the phone speaker opening on the front face.

Design Patent Infringement

If Apple would have shown all sides and all features of the iPhone in solid lines in the ‘087 patent, then it is possible that the jury would have determined that the Galaxy did not infringe the ‘087 patent.

The ordinary observer test is used to determine design patent infringement. As explained in Egyptian Goddess, Inc. v. Swisa, Inc., 543 F.3d 665 (Fed. Cir. 2008), the ordinary observer test provides:

“[I]f, in the eye of an ordinary observer, giving such attention as a purchaser usually gives, two designs are substantially the same, if the resemblance is such as to deceive such an observer, inducing him to purchase one supposing it to be the other, the first one patented is infringed by the other.”

If Apple provided all sides and all features of the iPhone in solid lines in the ‘087 patent, could the jury have found the differences in the Galaxy phone, including the back shape and the lack of a home button, were enough to prevent the ordinary observer being deceived to purchase the Galaxy supposing it was the iPhone? Maybe so. Even if not, it would have made Apple’s case harder to prove.

Determining Important Features

Before drafting design patent drawings, first determine which features are important and which features are not important or are less important.

In figure 19 of the ‘087 patent, Apple determined the unique and important features to protect were the rounded rectangular bezel and the phone speaker opening on the front face. Apple provided the other features, the back/side shape and the home button, in broken lines.

It is common for the back or bottom of a product to be less important, especially if the back or bottom is not regularly seen by customers or users. Less important or unimportant features can be shown in broken lines so that those features do not limit your design patent rights.

The strategic use of broken lines for unimportant or less important features in a design patent  can allow you to focus the patent protection on the important portions of your product. By focusing on those important portions, you can achieve broader design patent protection.

Broader design patent protection will protect against competitors introducing designs that copy your important features but modify unimportant features to avoid your design patent. In the Apple case, Samsung was unable to avoid the ‘087 patent by making changes to the shape of the back, while providing a similar front bezel and flat face.