Darryl Keil Last Activity 2024-10-10 3:42 PM
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Richard Brewer

 
Subject : Design patents for furniture?
Posted : 2005-01-24 8:53 PM
Post #32010
Have any of you forum followers ever looked into design patents for your work? This is an area in which I am pretty ignorant, but I have recently designed something, actually a furniture "concept" that is really different and interesting. I have taken this to several shows and galleries and I am getting raves on it, but I'm worried that it could be copied/mass produced. Anyone know a good place to research design patents and the like? Thank you in advance...


 
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Earl

Posts: 75

Joined: 2003-12-04
Location: Pensacola FL

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Subject : RE: Design patents for furniture?
Posted : 2005-01-24 9:49 PM
Post #32011 - In reply to #32010
Richard, A Patent is only as good as the Lawyers defending it. Don't get me wrong it is a good thing to protect your designs and ideas. But if someone wants to make knockoffs and sell them cheap you'll have to spend lots of money on Lawyers in the courts to protect those rights. I think if you trademark a name brand and develop that it would be more effective. That way people would associate the name with your product and I feel would protect it more.


 
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JimC

 
Subject : RE: Design patents for furniture?
Posted : 2005-01-25 9:23 AM
Post #32012 - In reply to #32010
There's an article in Fine Woodworking perhaps 18 months ago about this issue. A woodworker came up with a bed design (I think he called it the Railroad Baron bed, or somesuch), and the design was widely copied and marketed. The article describes the effort to limit the knock-offs. There is a dramatic photo of one of the copied beds bbeing torched, a media photo op to dramatize the problem. Try the FWW index search.


 
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2trees

 
Subject : Design protection
Posted : 2005-01-29 11:21 AM
Post #32019 - In reply to #32012
I didn't read the FWW article so I won't comment on that.

Back in the 80's large groups of American companies representing heavy equipment, motor vehicle manufactures, aircraft, machine tool etc. They wanted to get legislation passed to protect their designs. Companies all over the world were and still are copying many profitable American companies designs

This is one reason why American companies had to move some operations overseas.

I attended a seminar on design protection and the results were. from memory.

You can not patent a design, but you can patent the special patented process or special patented material utilized in its make up and manufacturing. This does not prevent others from manufacturing the same part with different materials.

This has also increased the explosion of counterfeit products.



 
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Burl-e

 
Subject : RE: Design protection
Posted : 2005-02-08 10:31 AM
Post #32039 - In reply to #32019
2 trees said: "You can not patent a design, but you can patent the special patented process or special patented material utilized in its make up and manufacturing. This does not prevent others from manufacturing the same part with different materials."

Well, this is not entirely true. A utility patent cannot cover a design, but a design patent can. Furthermore, if you are wanting to protect against knockoff's from oversees, there is a filing that can be made with the U.S. Customs office to prevent entry into the country to protect your legal rights. Yes, you will need to approach a patent attorney about these issues, but if you are developing your income from your design, and you operate a scalable business, it may be worth it. Almost anything that can make money requires an investment of some sort . . . the old "you have to have money to make money" statement.
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