Design patents are difficult and expensive to obtain.
Many original designs that provide a distinguishable and appealing variation over prior designs for similar articles will fail to meet these standards. This does not include attorneys' fees for prosecuting the application and the application process can take several years. State protection is not available. Since the only way to be sure a design is protected is to obtain judicial determination, a forced election between design protection and copyright registration may cause designers to abandon design protection when they may not be sure they have copyright protection. International law allows for much the same remedies as U.S. law.