USPTO Requirements For Design Patent Drawings

Get ready to file patent drawings to be filed at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). But before that, you must know all the requirements of USPTO to avoid its rejections in your Patent Drawings.

What is a Design Patent?

It protects only the ornamental appearance of an invention. It doesn’t protect the functions of your invention or idea.

Design Patent vs Utility Patent

Design Patent protects the way an article looks whereas utility patent protects functional characteristics of the article or the way an article is used and works.

Requirements for Patentability Designs must be:

• new,

• original,

• ornamental, and

• for an article of manufacture 

USPTO Requirements Or Guidelines For Design Patent Drawings

1. The Title Of The Design or The Preamble of Patent Design, Starting Name Of The Applicant, Brief Description and Intended Use Of The Invention:

• The Preamble Of Patent Design: It should state the name of the applicant or inventor, the title of the patent design, and a brief description of nature and proposed use of the article in which the invention or idea design is embodied or represented. 
• The Title: All information contained in the title(used by the public) will be printed on the patent. It should be deemed patentable.
• The Figure Descriptions: It indicates what each view of the drawings represents or depicts that is front elevation, top plan, perspective view, and more. Any description of the invention design, other than a brief description, is generally not necessary. Generally, the patent drawing is the design’s best description. However, while not required, a special description for design patent drawing is not prohibited or forbidden.

In addition to the figure descriptions, the following kinds of statements are admissible in the specification:

• A description of the appearance of portions of the claimed patent design which are not represented in the patent drawing disclosure.
•  Description disclaiming portions of the article not shown, that form no section of the claimed design.
• A statement that indicates any broken line representation of environmental structure in the patent drawing is not part of the design sought to be patented.
• A description that denotes the nature and environmental use of the claimed patent design.

2. Drawing Format For Patent:

Design patent figures must be illustrated in black-and-white line drawings. Surface shading must be included to show the character and contour of all surfaces. Broken lines should be used to show portions that form no part of the claimed patent design. 

3. Color Drawings or Photographs In Design Patent:

Color Drawings or photos are accepted only when it explains why these are necessary. All these petitions must include the petition fee, three sets of color drawings or photos, & the specification format of explanation.

4. Required or Necessary views For Patent:

The necessary views include a front, rear, right side, left side, top, and bottom. You can also include perspective views but these are not required. Views that are replicas may be deleted if the specification makes this explicitly clear. 

5. Surface Shading:

Design drawings must include proper surface shading that displays the character and contour of all surfaces of the design. It is essential to distinguish between open space and solid areas. The lack of proper surface shading may result in a non-enabling rejection.

6. Disclaimers Of Design Patent:

Disclaimer statements are not permitted in issued design patents but are temporarily allowed in an unfinished design application to enable future alterations. The most efficient way to avoid claiming a design element is to show such a feature in broken or dashed lines.

7. Broken or dashed lines:

Sometimes it’s helpful to represent the context of a design without actually claiming the surrounding environment. These lines may be used in those situations to indicate that whatever is shown as such forms, are no part of the claimed patent design. Whatever is shown in dashed lines in a US design patent application may finally have to be shown as solid in a counterpart foreign design application.

8. Ink Drawings or Black And White Photographs:

Black and white photographs or images and ink patent drawings must not be joined in a formal submission of the visual disclosure of the patent design in one application. It would result in a high possibility of inconsistencies among identical elements on the ink drawings as compared with the photos. If photographs are submitted instead of ink drawings, then they should not show any environmental structure.

9. The Oath or Declaration:

It is an inventor’s promise, commitment, or acknowledgment of the promise with the Patent Office. A patent design application contains many pieces of valuable information and paperwork. There is the patent disclosure, which includes the patent summary, its background, description, patent design drawings, and claims. The application likely also involves an information disclosure sheet, a power of attorney form, and an application datasheet. Lastly, the patent application will include a declaration. It is a short document that each patent inventor must sign asserting a few things.