According to the
Wall Street Journal (9/11/2012),
Lululemon, in a complaint filed in federal court in Delaware last month,
claims that Calvin Klein is selling pants that "have infringed and are
still infringing" on three patents, including one for a distinctive
waistband featuring overlapping panels of fabric. The company was
awarded one of the patents last year, and the two others in June.
Lululemon is trying to chart a new path by filing and litigating patents secured on the basis of its designs.
Such patents, called design patents, have "for too long been grossly
underappreciated" by the fashion industry, said Perry Saidman, a
design-law expert and lawyer in Silver Spring, Md.
Fashion designers have only sporadically gone to court over such
patents. But slowly, design patents are coming into vogue across a
widening number of industries. Apple Inc. made them a key part of its case in its recent legal victory over rival Samsung Electronics in which a jury found that Samsung had copied Apple's designs.
Design patents is a great weapon against copycats. Unlike utility patents, they are easy to get and their scope usually well defined. Moreover, design patents are simple; they don't require highly technical expert testimonies to demonstrate infringement to a lay jury.
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