Ask an Attorney
What Our Customers Say...
Need a Product Designer?
Helpful Tips
Do I have to identify the designer?
It is possible to waive the name of the designer when filing a European Community Design, but you should be sure that you have the rights to the design
GLOSSARY (D)
DAMAGES
Damages are available as one of several remedies following a successful infringement action, i.e. should a patent proprietor successfully prove infringement in court, the patent proprietor is entitled to financial compensation based on the amount of losses incurred due to the infringement.
DEMAND
A demand is a request for International Preliminary Examination and is made during the international phase of a PCT application. The demand is optional and allows the applicant to make amendments to the claims, description and drawings. If no demand is filed, an applicant can only make amendments to the claims in response to the International Search Report. The demand is filed at the International Preliminary Examination Authority.
DESCRIPTION
The description is a part of a patent specification that describes the invention in detail and helps to put the claims of a patent into context. Typically, the description includes some detail on the problems the inventor(s) met during the product/process development and how the invention solves these problems. It might also include a brief discussion on existing solutions (e.g. products on the market) to the same problems and how the invention differs from these. The description might also include a section acknowledging relevant patents in the technical field.
DESIGN PATENT
In brief, a design patent is the US equivalent of what is known in Europe as a registered design.
DESIGNATION
This is an indication of the country in which patent protection is sought.
DISCLOSURE
Disclosure is the putting of an idea/invention in the public domain.
DIVISIONAL APPLICATION
A ‘divisional application’ is a spin out ‘child’ patent application taken from a pending ‘parent’ patent application. Both parent and child application will relate to the same subject matter but the claims of the child application will be different from the parent application. Often, divisional applications are filed because two or more related inventions were included in the parent application for example to reduce filing costs, but since a patent can only be granted for one invention, a separate patent application is ultimately required for each invention. Accordingly, a divisional application may need to be filed where there is a finding of lack of unity of invention.
DRAWINGS
As part of a patent application, drawings are used to help explain how the invention works. Initially drawings may be ‘informal’ and could be rough sketches or rendered 3D concepts. However, in time, these drawings must be formalised to meet a standard laid down in law. Formal drawings should replicate the informal drawings on file, should only include black and white line drawings and genereally not include any shading (although cross hatching where required is allowable).