Recap of 2024 U.S. Design Patent Drama: Here’s What We Know Now
In 2024, design patent law encountered a couple of major changes: the implementation of a new design patent bar, and the upending of decades of obviousness law under 35 U.S.C. § 103 in view of the en banc United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC)’s decision in LKQ Corporation v. GM Global Technology Operations LLC, which we discussed here. Looking back at last year’s design patent issuance statistics, we now take the time to determine whether, if at all, the issuance numbers of U.S. design patents were impacted by these changes.
As discussed in a prior post, the USPTO created the design patent bar to qualify individuals with design backgrounds to practice before the USPTO in design patent application proceedings as registered design patent agents. The USPTO recently reported five registered design patent agents, most of whom are former design patent examiners. While the response to the design patent bar appears lukewarm, it may be too early to determine its full impact and the trajectory of the number of design patent agents, and whether the introduction of new practitioners will impact the number of design patent applications that are filed with the USPTO.
Regardless, U.S. design patents continue to grow persistently in popularity. The slight downtick in the number of issued design patents in 2021—as discussed in a previous post—was offset by about a 40% increase in 2024, setting a new annual issuance record.
The increase in the number of issued U.S. design patents is evident across all types of articles of manufacture. Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) remain one of the most popular articles of manufacture identified in recently issued U.S. design patents. Other articles of manufacture, including those directed to auto parts and medical instruments, have also been steadily gaining popularity over the last few years. Interestingly, the popularity of GUI design patents trailed slightly behind that of auto part design patents (including fenders, bumpers, tires, etc.) in the last few years.
Zooming in on the 2024 statistics (see the chart below), the total number of issued U.S. design patents varied month-to-month. The issuance numbers for the two most popular articles of manufacture—GUIs and auto parts—similarly varied. However, the fluctuation in the issuance of the U.S. design patents throughout the year does not appear to be unusual. The numbers increased and decreased without a particular pattern, even after the CAFC’s en banc decision in LKQ in May 2024. The new guidance issued by the USPTO in view of LKQ to apply a flexible approach to obviousness during examination of U.S. design patent applications, similar to that applied for utility applications, does not appear to have made its full impact on issuance of design patents, at least not as shown by the statistics.
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