More than 400 people attended Design Day 2018: Design At Work at the United States Patent & Trade Office (USPTO) headquarters in Alexandria, VA, and another 200 viewed the conference from USPTO remote locations. This year’s event featured presentations by noted designers and attorneys from Kohler, Microsoft and Caterpillar, who discussed in detail how design and design patent protections have been essential to the success of their respective corporations.
The session was attended by a contingent of IDSA Design Experts and representatives from leading law firms well known for their work in design patent prosecution and litigation. The Keynote presentation was delivered by the CEO and Chief Legal Counsel from Sugarfina, an LA-based startup offering high-end candy with a luxury-focused branding methodology that is based on strong IP design protections.
As in years past, Charles L. Mauro, CHFP, IDSA, (shown above at right) and Beth Ferrill along with George Raynal presented USPTO Design Patent Examiners with a review of important cases from the past year. The presentation also included a mock discussion between an inventor and patent attorney as they went through the various stages of determining how to file design patents on a new invention. The mock filing focused on the problems inventors face in funding IP filings, work with attorneys to execute filings and how to handle infringing designs.