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Design-Trademark Practice

Design patents are granted for a new and nonobvious design for an article of manufacture, the ornamentation applied to an article of manufacture, or both.  Unlike utility patents, which protect the structure, function, chemical composition, technology or method of use of an invention, design patents protect the ornamental visual appearance of a product.  Design patents thus provide a critical, yet often overlooked method of protecting your products from copying. This is particularly true in industries where the shape, configuration, appearance and color of a product, and its ornamentation, are of critical importance to brand recognition among consumers throughout the world.

Design patents protect traditional manufactured products of an almost infinite variety. In the digital age, the law of design patents has evolved so that now the visual appearance of graphical user interfaces and icons displayed on computer monitors and mobile devices are eligible for design patent protection as well.  Laws protecting digital designs are currently evolving to include protection for digital images of virtual products or spaces, such as those employed by video games, or virtual or enhanced reality displays, whether they are static or in motion.  This has provided high technology companies and software developers alike with the ability to carve out exclusive property rights for their creativity on a wide landscape, and to compete globally based on the unique look and feel of their interfaces or graphical renderings. 

Practice Areas

NSIP Law has developed an experienced and knowledgeable group of attorneys and paralegals who focus their practice on the procurement of design patents for our clients.  NSIP Law’s design patent practice has consistently ranked among the largest of such practices in the United States.  As a result, NSIP attorneys are in the enviable position of being able to assist clients with a comprehensive strategy for protecting and enforcing their design patent rights throughout the world. Our expertise extends to the following matters: 

  • Counseling regarding the eligibility of products, or individual product features, for design patent protection.
  • Counseling regarding the relative risks and benefits of using black & white line drawings, color or color contrast as part of drawings, grayscale/CAD drawings, or photographs to express the design elements.
  • Strategies for protecting entire designs, partial designs or design components that may be critical to the client’s competitive advantage in the marketplace.
  • Strategies for filing multiple applications that claim various aspects of a unified design, in order to defeat counterfeiters or infringers who make slight changes to a product to avoid infringement.
  • Strategies for claiming graphical user interfaces and icons, both as static displays and as transitional or animated graphical user interfaces whose images change in a sequence.
  • Coordinating the preparation of formal design drawings for design patent applications filed in the United States and abroad.
  • Drafting design patent applications and prosecuting them before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
  • Strategies for protecting design patent rights internationally.

Trademark Practice

A company’s brand name and logo represent the reputation on which they succeed in the global marketplace. Trademarks, service marks, trade names and trade dress are clear examples of how a company’s intellectual property portfolio impacts everyday business, the value of its brands, and the image and relationship that it has with its customers and suppliers. These distinctive and valuable marks can take the form of words, both real and fanciful, as well as logo designs and even distinctive ornamental product configurations and shapes.  Distinctive sounds and color schemes that uniquely identify well-known brands have also been protected as trademarks.  NSIP Law understands that a company’s brand, and all of the components that go into it, is a critical component in their continued success, as they build on their past and current accomplishments, and strengthen and expand their relationships and establishments globally.

Our intellectual property attorneys are skilled in obtaining secure and enforceable trademark and service mark registrations, policing those trademark rights against infringements by third parties, and providing consultation and opinions in trademark and trade dress enforcement matters. We have successfully filed and prosecuted trademark applications for many different types of clients in a variety of industries, and have the experience and knowledge to protect your name, brands, logo designs, trade dress and product configurations both domestically and internationally.

We specialize in the following areas:

  • Assisting clients with the selection of distinctive word, design and product configuration trademarks that would most easily qualify for registration and provide them with strong and enforceable rights.
  • Global registrability and clearance searches and investigations to determine the availability of marks for use, and the eligibility of marks for registration in the U.S. and throughout the world.  Hand-in-hand with this service, we consult closely with our clients to ensure that they make the right decisions for their business regarding the selection and registration of their marks, in order to maximize the effectiveness of their efforts, while also being cost conscious and efficient with ours.
  • Drafting, filing and prosecuting applications for trademark and service mark registrations in the United States and throughout the world, through our network of foreign associate law firms. 
  • Prosecuting appeals of trademark applications before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the USPTO.
  • Managing worldwide trademark portfolios.  This includes counseling clients with respect to formulating a comprehensive strategy for protecting, policing and enforcing their trademarks and service marks in countries around the world where they and their competitors manufacture and sell their products, or provide their services.
  • Monitoring third-party usage of our client’s trademarks and service marks in order to assist our clients with policing and enforcing those marks.
  • Assisting clients with protecting their trademarks and service marks as Internet domain names, and preventing unfair usages of those marks on the Internet.
  • Negotiating trademark license agreements and concurrent use agreements.
  • Representing clients in trademark opposition and cancellation proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
  • Representing clients with respect to the enforcement of their registered trademark rights by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Service.
  • Enforcement and protection against trademark and trade dress infringement, unfair and deceptive trade practices and counterfeiting in the United States federal court system and at the U.S. International Trade Commission.