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Court Declines to Apply Trademark Aesthetic Functionality Defense to Design Patents
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan recently held that the concept of aesthetic functionality, which may be used to invalidate a trademark, does not apply to design patents. Auto. Body Parts Ass’n v. Ford Global Techs., LLC, No. 2:15-cv-10137, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26290, at *1 (E.D. Mich. Feb. 20, …
Avoiding Knowledge of a U.S. Patent Does Not Preclude Willful Infringement
When patent infringement is determined, 35 U.S.C. § 284 permits courts to “increase the damages up to three times the amount found or assessed.” In Halo Electronics, Inc. v. Pulse Electronics, Inc., 136 S. Ct. 1923 (2016), the Supreme Court held that such enhanced damages are “designed as a ‘punitive’ or ‘vindictive’ sanction for egregious …
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