Chris Carani, Phil Ruben, and Sean Sparrow Author Law360 Article, “Fed. Circ. Must Bury Design Patent Doctrinal Zombies”
03.11.26
Following the recent Federal Circuit decision in Range of Motion Products LLC v. Armaid Co. Inc., Chris, Phil, and Sean offer a unique perspective on the decision’s impact on design patent law. The article argues that the Federal Circuit should eliminate the “plainly dissimilar” test and reaffirm the Supreme Court’s “ordinary observer” test as the sole standard for design patent infringement. The authors further urge the en banc court to use this opportunity to address long-running problems with design patent claim construction by eliminating the troublesome practices of feature filtration and claim verbalization. Instead, courts should return to first principles of design patent law as reflected in the governing statute and Supreme Court precedent. That is, design patents protect the overall visual appearance of the claimed design as shown in the drawings, not a subset of features filtered or verbalized by a court during claim construction.
Read the article here: https://bit.ly/40W0JXN