In re: Maatita

Maatita filed a design patent application, covering the design of an athletic shoe bottom, with two figures showing a plan view of the claimed shoe bottom design. As is customary, the solid lines of Figure 1 show the claimed design, whereas the broken lines show structure that is not part of the claimed design—the shoe bottom environment in which the design is embodied. An examiner rejected the application’s single claim as non-enabled and indefinite under 35 U.S.C. 112 because the plan left the design open to multiple interpretations regarding the depth and contour of the claimed elements. The Federal Circuit reversed. The Board misapplied section 112 in the design patent context. The standard for indefiniteness is connected to the standard for infringement. A design patent is infringed if “an ordinary observer, familiar with the prior art, would be deceived into thinking that the accused design was the same as the patented design.” Maatita’s decision not to disclose all possible depth choices would not preclude an ordinary observer from understanding the claimed design since the design is capable of being understood from the two-dimensional, plan- or planar-view perspective shown in the drawing. View "In re: Maatita" on Justia Law