Patents on the soles of your shoes...: Oh, patents! Longchamp® (1)

Friday, October 18, 2019

Oh, patents! Longchamp® (1)

Copyright Françoise Herrmann

One Longchamp® Le Pliage handbag is estimated sold every minute worldwide, 2.5 million are manufactured every year, and more than 32 million have been sold since 1993 when they were first launched in Paris, France. Inspired by Japanese Origami (the art of folding paper), the term pliage is derived from the French verb plier, which means “to fold”. Indeed, Le Pliage bags, fold and unfold. Some Le Pliage bags are even designed with zippers to make them expansible. Above all, Le Pliage bags are designed to be light and practical.

Initially made exclusively of nylon fabric with leather handles, the French luxury brand Longhamp® intended to design a handbag accessible to everyone. Le Pliage handbags were first designed in 6 different fabric colors. Since then, numerous collaborations with local French artists and international designers, have produced more than 150 versions, excluding the customization possibilities of the online "design your own" Le Pliage handbag.

Longchamp® has been granted more than 100 US design patents, not only for the designs of the various Le Pliage bags, but also for the many different sorts of Longchamp ® handbags created every year.

As a reminder a US design patent is different from a US utility patent in that:

“a utility patent” protects the way an article is used and works (35 U.S.C. 101), while a “design patent” protects the way an article looks (35 U.S.C. 171) [MPEP Chapt. 1502.01; [R-07.2015]].

The patent figure drawings below, shown together with a red marketed Le Pliage handbag, are extracted from the US design patent USD452073S1, titled Handbag.