The statistics below reveal the current trends on proceeding breakdowns, institution rates, and outcomes of design patent PTO litigation. No new design patent petitions have been filed since April 2017. Four final written decisions have issued since the last update in January 2018, two resulting
in cancelled claims. Only three proceedings involving design patents are currently pending.

I. Proceeding Breakdown

II. Institution Rates/Case Statuses

The institution rate for design patents, for both claims and proceedings, is 41% (17/41).

For cases overall, the proceeding institution rate is 68%, and the claim institution rate is 61%.

Here is a breakdown of the current case statuses for all of the design cases:

III. Final Written Decision (FWD) Outcomes
A. Claim Cancellation Rate

The instituted claim has been cancelled in 10 of 14 design FWDs (71%). The overall claim cancellation rate is 77%.

B. FWD Ground Type

C. FWD Prior Art Type

IV. Technology Areas


This article appeared in the April 2018 issue of The Goods on IP. To view our past issues, as well as other firm newsletters, please click here.