Copyright © Françoise Herrmann
The Squatchi Inc. patent, USD 704080 S1, titled Home
shoe-sizer for children is a design
patent. (You probably noticed the letter “D” in the patent reference
number).
A design patent protects the way an object “looks”, it’s visual and
ornamental properties. In contrast, a utility patent protects the
functionality of an object, how it works or how it is used. It follows that
objects can be protected with both design and utility patents providing all
conditions of patentability are
fulfilled in each case -- even for a single object like several of Frank
Ghery’s chairs (see this previous post on the differences between design and utility patents).
For the present case of a shoe-sizer, such
an object may be protected for the way it looks, like the brightly colored
Squatchi, designed for use at home to measure children’s shoe sizes. And a shoe-sizer
may be patented for the functions it performs like the Shoe-sizer patent
US1252920 A that was granted in 1918, for all the patentable
improvements that it offered, in particular a sliding block to improve
measurement accuracy.
There are many additional important
differences between utility and design patents, outlined in the Code of
Federal Regulations CFR 37, especially in terms of form. For example, a design patent only contains figure drawings and a single claim,
whereas utility patents contain a
much more detailed and structured description of the invention, that may run
several hundred pages.
Below, to the left, you will find a Squatchi USD 704080 S1 patent
drawing, and above an image of the real marketed product. The figure drawings of patent US1252920 titled Shoe-sizer, granted 1918….with its
block slide for more accurate measurements are included below to the right. The image of marketed block slide shoe sizer is also included above.
Just short of 100 years between the Squatchi and the block-slide shoe sizer!...
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