United States (US) patent laws provide for the granting of design patents for inventions that are new and non-obvious ornamental designs for an article of manufacture. The design patent protects only the appearance of an article, not its structural or functional features. The drawing of the design patent conforms to the same rules as for invention patent drawings, but no reference characters are allowed and the drawing should clearly depict the appearance, since the drawing defines the scope of patent protection. Only one claim is permitted. The claim should read, “The ornamental Design for a [insert claimed object] as shown and described. The description of a design application is short, for example, “FIG. 1 is a perspective view of [insert claimed object]; FIG 2 is…”

For filing a design application:

• Name and address of the inventor(s);
• Specification with one claim (for wording see above) and include the title and drawing(s);
• Declaration signed and dated by the Inventor(s)
• Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) listing prior art known to the applicant;
• Information about Large Entity or Small Entity status; and Assignment (if any)*

*Assignments may be filed at any time during the prosecution of the application.