In LKQ v. GM the en banc Federal Circuit discarded the rigid two-part test that had governed design patent obviousness since the early 1980s and replaced it with the Graham factors adapted for design patents. The inquiry is more flexible now, and challengers are already testing it, but as the
When a design patent’s drawings show no article, the title and claim language supply it, and that language can decide the case. This episode walks through Curver Luxembourg v. Home Expressions, where a pattern claimed for a chair could not be asserted against a basket, and In re SurgiSil, where
This episode discusses how the Federal Circuit applied prosecution history disclaimer to a design patent in Top Brand v. Cozy Comfort, and what that means for how you draft and argue responses to office actions so the patent holds its scope when it is later enforced. It also covers the
After LKQ overruled Rosen-Durling, does visual similarity still supply a motivation to combine references? ProSearch + AI traces the answer through the en banc opinion, the USPTO’s guidance memo, and a June 2025 district court ruling in LKQ’s own remand, with the authority hierarchy kept straight throughout.
ProSearch + AI surveys which rejections are most common in design patent reissue prosecution — drawn from 17 real prosecution files, with the § 251 declaration defect leading by a wide margin.