Marketplace and social media disclosures now drive design prosecution. Of 285 prosecution histories from September 22, 2026, seventy-two drew a 102 rejection, nearly all from web sources, with Amazon listings in 44. Applicants filed 68 Rule 130 declarations. Obviousness appeared in only 19, and no applicant offered secondary considerations.
The fourth Graham factor applies to design patents. LKQ v. GM, 102 F.4th 1280, 1296, 1299-1300 (Fed. Cir. 2024) (en banc). The court named commercial success, industry praise, and copying, and said it was not deciding whether long-felt need and failure of others apply to designs.
Every reference in a design patent obviousness rejection must now be analogous art to the claimed design. LKQ v. GM, 102 F.4th 1280, 1296-99 (Fed. Cir. 2024) (en banc).
An obviousness rejection of a design claim now requires a record-supported reason to combine the references. See LKQ v. GM, 102 F.4th 1280, 1299 (Fed. Cir. 2024) (en banc).
A total of 926 Design Patents issued on June 24, 2025. Unpublished PTAB Decisions One application (29798750) has an unpublished PTAB decision (Ex Parte Chen, 2024-000640) reversing the Examiner on an issue of obviousness with an LKQ analysis. Ex Parte Chen is another good example of an applicant overcoming an