Protecting Your Products Using Design Patents in the Era of Copycats
“Your product development team spent years designing a product, working out every design detail until it is just right. Your company spent significant time and money marketing the product, shoring up a great reputation for the product and the company that stands behind it. Then, a copycat comes along with a knockoff and starts selling a product that looks eerily similar—or even identical—to yours. When your customers search online for your long-developed and lauded product, the knockoff appears, and at a fraction of the price. You are certainly surprised, and likely dismayed,” write Gary A. Abelev and Gregory Miller in Hunton Andrews Kurth’s blog.
“What can be done to remedy this very unfortunate situation? One possibility is to contact the online search engine or third party retailer, which may have protocols to address such issues. However, without intellectual property (IP) protection for your product, very few remedies are available.”
