What is the Difference Between Utility Patent and Design Patent?

When you are filing a patent, the first thing that you would have to do is choose the patent type. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) grants patents under three categories: utility patents, design patents, and plant patents. Of these, the most common are utility patents. In 2019 alone, the Patent Services USA granted 354,430 utility patents.

Nearly 90% of the patent applications filed in the USA are utility patents. When we talk about patents in general, we are mostly talking about utility patents. Design patent is the second most applied patent category.

In this blog, we will discuss both of them in detail comparing their benefits, differences, and the protection they offer to inventors.

Utility Patent Vs Design Patent: What Does it Mean?

A patent in general is a certificate issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to an inventor. The certificate confers ownership of the invention on the inventor for a fixed time frame (20 years as per US Patent Laws). As long as the inventor holds patent rights for the invention, it is unlawful to use the invention for commercial gains unless and until approved by the inventor.

If you are seeking a patent for a new or improved machine, process, manufacture article, or composition of matter, then you will have to opt for a utility patent.

However, if you are applying for a patent to protect the visual elements or design of a manufactured item, you will have to apply for a design patent.

In more simple terms, a utility patent protects the functional aspect of an article i.e how the article works and is used, whereas the design patent protects the visual characteristics of an article i.e its shape, appearance, configuration, etc.

Do You Need a Tangible Product to File for Utility and Design Patents?

A simple answer to this is “No”.

There is no need for the inventor to produce a working product or even a basic prototype. If you can exhibit your idea, its function, design, and application on the patent application draft, you are in your right to file for either a utility patent or a design patent, or both.

How Do You Know If you have a Utility Patent or a Design Patent?

You can differentiate between patents by looking at the patent number. The patent number in the case of design patents is prefixed with the letter ‘D’. The utility patent on the other hand has no alphabet prefix. It consists only of numbers.

Utility Vs Design Patents Example

Now that you know the difference between a utility patent and a design patent, as well as the ways to discern between them using patent numbers, let’s look at some examples of the two.

We are pretty sure that you are familiar with the Apple Watch. Now Apple holds over 110 patents for its smartwatch. And these patents include both utility patents and design patents.

Just to remind you, utility patents protect what an article does whereas a design patent protects how an article looks.

Moving over from smartwatches, other popular examples of design patents would be the IKEA chair, the original Coca-Cola bottle, and the original Macintosh. Similarly, the steam engine, the broom, the mixer grinder fall under the category of utility patents.

Utility vs Design Patent: The Differences

#1. No Provisional Design Patent

You can file a provisional patent application for a utility. But unfortunately, you cannot do the same for design patents. A provisional patent application preserves a one-year time for inventors to explore every aspect of their invention including commercial. Furthermore, inventors can also figure out key specifications that are not yet fully optimized.

A provisional patent application isn’t as formalized as a non-provisional. Inventors can file the full non-provisional patent application after the completion of the 12 months.

Design patents do not offer the provisional option. You need to file the non-provisional only when you are assured that you have 100% novel and unique designs.

#2. The Fees

The cost of filing a utility patent is way more than the design patent. Plus, the utility patent fees will vary depending on your company size. If you are a small company or a startup or an individual, you will pay lower patent fees than say a big enterprise or a mid-size company.

#3. The Patentability Search

Ever wondered how to invent a product? Just a gentle reminder it’s not always about ideas. Yes, ideas are valuable and crucial. But there is never a guarantee that they are always unique. A simple patentability search or pre-application search will tell you there are tons of identifiable patents that could directly or indirectly impact your chance of securing a patent.

However, a patentability search is often a blessing in disguise for inventors. It can be very useful in filing a patent application while distinguishing it from any prior art. Plus, you can also get a fair amount of ideas about your potential competitors.

A patentability search is very effective in the case of utility patents. A simple keyword search related to your invention will give you tons of patents and non-patent literature. It makes it way easier for inventors to identify the scope of patent protection the USPTO will grant to their invention.

However, such benefits are hard to find in the case of design patents. Images, shapes, designs, etc are way more difficult to search both online and offline.

#4. Office Action:

For the unversed, office actions are objections raised by the patent examiner office against the claims of the invention’s novelty or non-obviousness, or utility. Given that the scope of research in the case of utility patents is much broader, the probability of objection is also higher.

#5. The Attorney Fees

If we take into account the scope of work, then utility patents outweigh design patents by a fair margin. Design patents require a draft that is utmost 5-page long. But utility patent application drafts can be much longer and require a considerable amount of research as well. Naturally, the attorney will charge more for utility patents.

In case of office actions the cost of hiring a professional attorney for response will be way higher in the case of utility patents. Moreover, in case of rejection, the legal argument and amendment to overcome the verdict will be 3–4 times more in the case of utility patents.

#6. Length of the Patent

Utility patents are granted for 20 years from the filing date. On the other hand, design patents are granted for 15 years from the date of issue of the patent. Given that utility patents may take 2–3 years to be granted, the difference is more or less marginal.

Design Vs Utility: Which Patent Should You Choose?

No rule says that you need to choose one parent over the other. Remember that design patents protect how the invention looks whereas a utility patent protects what the invention does. So it’s very likely that both patents will be way more effective in protecting your interests when used in conjunction.

This brings us to the end of this blog. We hope that the information we shared was helpful to you. If there is anything more that you would like to share, feel free to drop them in the comment section.