- Collection:
- Journal of Intellectual Property Law
- Title:
- You Can’t Handle the Obvious: LKQ and Testing for Nonobviousness in Design Patents
- Creator:
- Easterlin, Frank
- Date of Original:
- 2025
- Subject:
- Intellectual property lawyers
Intellectual property
University of Georgia. School of Law
Law--Study and teaching - Location:
- United States, Georgia, Clarke County, Athens, 33.96095, -83.37794
- Medium:
- notes (documents)
- Type:
- Text
- Format:
- application/pdf
- Description:
- This Note traces the change from the rigid Rosen-Durling test for obviousness in design patents, to the Graham analysis in light of KSR v. Teleflex. The history of obviousness inquiries supported a more flexible approach and thus made Rosen-Durling unsupportable as anomalous. However, in abandoning a functional, if stiff, test for obviousness, the Federal Circuit both clarifies and clutters the law around obviousness. This Note follows that change, makes sense of what it can, and humorously criticizes the ambiguities and circularity of the court’s opinion. Ultimately, the new test opens up design patents to a wider array of attacks. This may ultimately sound the death knell for an under-utilizes form of intellectual property protection.
Obviousness -- LKQ -- Patent -- Intellectual Property Law - External Identifiers:
- Metadata URL:
- https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/jipl/vol32/iss2/4
- Holding Institution:
- Alexander Campbell King Law Library
- Rights:
-
