Design Thinking

Chapter 24Intellectual Property Protection for Designs

Daniel Harris Brean¹

The Webb Law Firm

Introduction

Designers who are empowered with knowledge of intellectual property laws can leverage their creativity into patents, trademarks, and copyrights to protect their work and gain competitive advantages. Not all patents, trademarks, and copyrights are created equal, however. Designers should strive for strong intellectual property rights, and doing so requires a baseline understanding of the differences between these forms of protection. Through explanations and examples, this chapter provides an overview of the protections available and offers guidance on preserving and maximizing one's rights under the different protection schemes.

24.1 “Design” in Intellectual Property

To understand how designs may be protected, it is important to set aside preconceived notions of what a “design” is. Designers, artists, museum curators, academics, and others have long debated what design is and how to distinguish design from decorative arts, sculpture, engineering, drawing, or other creative endeavors. In the real world, designs include both functional components and aesthetic elements. For example, a new “design” for a smartphone might include software for improved usability including streamlined menu navigation and search capability in the user interface, and may additionally stylize the contours of the phone and the aesthetic appearance of the buttons and text in the interface.

“Design” ...