Patent protection and design protection serve different purposes in an Intellectual Property  (IP) strategy. Although both are registered rights, they protect different aspects of a creation, have different legal tests, and follow different filing and maintenance rules. What Design Protection Covers An industrial design (Canada) or design patent (U.S.) protects the visual appearance of a...Read More

Is a design patent very valuable? I accidentally answered this in wondering why the Stanley Quencher was so popular at Christmas and where the copycats were? The revolutionary thermos was invented by Mr Stanley in 1913, and so has expired long ago. The current version is just protected by the design right USD0996915. Interestingly Stanley...Read More