Abstract:
An internet website providing information, services and products relating to legal issues (e.g., intellectual property protection) for various types of designs, including industrial design, graphic design, architectural design, art design, and the like. The website is preferably located at the internet domain URL www.designlaw.com. 
     The website serves as a resource for anyone interested in the interplay between the law and design. The target audience includes designers, attorneys having design-related practices, and others interested in learning more about designs and protecting them with intellectual property rights. It will also cover basic legal concepts involving designs, such as who owns designs, contracts between designers and companies, and the like. 
     In a preferred embodiment, one of the products/services offered through the website is a database of images of products and designs involved in design law litigation, such as design patent litigation. Such images would include, for example, images of the patented designs and the accused designs, and would be offered on a fee per case basis, or a subscription basis. The case data can also include the actual court decision, a summary of the case, and an expert commentary. Users can search the database based on selected criteria, such as date, legal issue, court, type of design, and the like.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/922,474, filed Aug. 19, 2004, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/772,302, filed Jan. 29, 2001, which in turn claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/178,586, filed Jan. 28, 2000, all of which are incorporated herein by reference. 
     
    
     BRIEF SUMMARY 
       [0002]    The invention comprises an internet website providing information, services and products relating to legal issues (e.g., intellectual property protection) for designs. The types of designs can include industrial design, graphic design, architectural design, art design, and the like. The website will preferably be located at the internet domain URL www.designlaw.com. 
         [0003]    The primary purpose of the website is to serve as a resource for anyone interested in the interplay between the law and design. The target audience will include designers, attorneys having design-related practices, and others interested in learning more about designs and protecting them with intellectual property rights. It will also cover basic legal concepts involving designs, such as who owns designs, contracts between designers and companies, and the like. Collectively, the interplay between design and the law will be referred to hereinafter as “design law”. 
         [0004]    More particularly, a preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises an e-commerce method that allows end users who are attorneys, designers, judges, librarians, or even members of the general public, to access a database that stores critical information relating to design law litigation. Critical information of the type contemplated by the present invention has not been previously gathered or made available in an easy-to-access single source. The critical information is stored in a database that can be accessed by end users through the internet. Even more particularly, the critical information comprises visual images of products involved in design-related cases, such as design patent litigations. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0005]    The foregoing and other aspects of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when viewed in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: 
           [0006]      FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of a preferred embodiment of a website according to the present invention; 
           [0007]      FIG. 2  is a schematic drawing of a preferred embodiment of an e-commerce method according to the present invention; 
           [0008]      FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram showing the five main areas of a database of the preferred e-commerce method of  FIG. 2 ; 
           [0009]      FIG. 4  is a flowchart showing interaction of an end user in the e-commerce method of  FIG. 2 ; and 
           [0010]      FIG. 5  is a sample web page that would be presented to an e-commerce user/purchaser according to the preferred embodiment of  FIG. 2 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0011]    Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below to explain the present invention by referring to the figures. 
         [0012]    As illustrated in  FIG. 1 , users of the website would first be directed to a home page  1  which serves as a gateway to the information, products and services offered on the site. The information, products and services available from home page  1  preferably include one or more of the following:
       L INKS    2 —Links  2  preferably comprise hyperlinks to other websites related to design law, including websites dedicated to: law firms that have one or more specialists in design law, design associations (e.g., Industrial Designers Society of America, Association of Professional Design Firms, etc.), U.S. and foreign patent, trademark and copyright agencies (e.g., USPTO, etc.), and existing laws and legislation (e.g., from the U.S. Congress, etc.). Some of these links could comprise advertisers/vendors of products/services related to design law, who would pay a fee to the website owner for such listing(s).   R ESOURCES FOR DESIGNERS    3 —This category preferably comprises design law information written for designers relating to legal issues such as intellectual property protection for designs (such information may be offered as a free service or for a fee), patent litigation insurance, etc. This category may also include contact information for “design agents”, i.e., persons (not necessarily attorneys) who offer to represent designers in negotiations with those manufacturers who may be interested in the marketing and sale of products embodying new designs. Such agents could purchase listings from the website owner in order to have their contact information on the website. Finally, it may also include a marketplace for designs where designers can offer to license/sell their new designs to manufacturers. Again, any or all of these products/services may be offered either on a fee basis or for free.   R ESOURCES FOR  A TTORNEYS    4 —This category would preferably provide design law information for attorneys who represent designers including, for example, articles on recent cases involving protection of designs (i.e., design patent cases, trade dress cases, trademark cases involving product configuration trademarks, and copyright cases). Information would also be presented on how to use utility patents to protect designs, and statistics on the effectiveness of litigation, etc. The category could also have a periodic digest of the state of design law.   B IBLIOGRAPHY OF  A RTICLES    5 —This product/service would comprise a list of articles relating to designs and design law, along with hyperlinks to the text of the articles (which may be offered as a free service or for a fee).   E XPERT  W ITNESS  P ANEL    6 —This product/service preferably would include contact and bibliographical information for a group of legal and design experts in fields relating to design, including, e.g., design patent law, trade dress law, and industrial design. The website may further offer placement services between such experts and principals (e.g., litigators) for a fee.   D ESIGN  P ROTECTION  A SSOCIATION    7 —This preferably comprises an association devoted to the protection of designs, mainly by intellectual property (e.g., design patents, utility patents, trade dress, copyright, etc.). The association&#39;s activities could include, for example, lobbying for improvements in U.S. and foreign laws relating to design protection, and/or operating a design protection co-operative. The design protection co-operative could, e.g., pool the resources of designers, design firms and companies that might not otherwise have the financial means to pursue infringers of their intellectual property rights. The co-operative, using its aggregate resources, could take court action against an infringer of a member of the cooperative. Criteria for such action would be governed by the association&#39;s board of governors.   C ASE  S TUDIES    8 —This product would preferably comprise brief presentations of cases and designs of current and/or historical interest, and could be offered on a fee or no-fee basis.   S PEAKER  R OSTER    9 —This product/service would provide information about people (e.g., designers, lawyers) who are available to speak to legal or designer groups on design law topics.   D ISPUTE  R ESOLUTION    10 —This product/service comprises information relating to the resolution of disputes involving designs, including legal remedies, alternative dispute resolution (e.g., mediation, arbitration), and contact information for experts in the field of design dispute resolution. Such alternative dispute resolution could also include neutral expert evaluation, so a party contemplating litigation can get an independent assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of their case.   Current Design Law News  11 —This product/service would provide information about current events relating to design law, including new and proposed legislation and regulatory changes, recent court decisions, newly licensed product designs, resolutions of design law disputes, and other events of interest to users of the website.   L AW  F IRM  P ROFILES AND  B IBLIOGRAPHIES    12 —This product/service would provide information, including profiles and bibliographies, relating to law firms and attorneys who specialize in design law.   D ISCUSSION  F ORUMS    13 —This product/service may include chat rooms and bulletin boards where users of the website can communicate with one another about design and design law issues.       
 
         [0025]    The present invention also comprises an e-commerce method that allows end users who are attorneys, designers, judges, librarians, or even members of the general public, to access a database that stores critical information relating to design law litigation. As will become more clear hereinafter, this e-commerce method is a product/service that incorporates certain features and elements described in connection with  FIG. 1  above regarding resources for designers  3 , resources for attorneys  4 , case studies  8 , and current design law news  11 . The e-commerce method also incorporates several additional features and elements, as will now be described. 
         [0026]    Critical information of the type contemplated by the e-commerce method of the present invention has not been previously gathered or made available in an easy-to-access single source. The critical information is stored in a database that can be accessed by end users through the internet. In particular, the critical information comprises visual images of products involved in design-related cases, such as design patent litigations. 
         [0027]    By way of background, too often the design law litigation decisions reported in the various court reporters (e.g., Westlaw, LEXIS, BNA&#39;s USPQs, etc.) do not include images of either the protected design or the accused design. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to appreciate the true import of a reported decision, that, as one might expect, depends on the appearance of the protected design and the accused design. This is particularly true for design patent litigations, and is also true for trade dress and copyright litigations. By producing, collecting, and otherwise assembling visual data of the protected design and accused design in a decided design law litigation, the present invention comprises offering such visual images on the website on a fee basis, along with other data relating to the particular case. 
         [0028]    Referring now to  FIG. 2 , there is shown a schematic diagram of a preferred embodiment of the e-commerce image-retrieval method of the present invention. The method and system contemplates a database server  14  that gathers data from several sources, as will be explained. Database server  14  communicates with an email server  15 , in a manner that is well-known in the art, to provide selected data stored in server  14  on demand from end users via their computer terminals represented schematically by laptop  36  and desktop  38 . 
         [0029]    The preferred embodiment of the e-commerce image-retrieval method of the present invention will be described hereinafter in connection with design patent litigation, although it will be clear that it also can apply to trade dress litigation and copyright litigation (both of which can involve visual images), or any other type of litigation where it is important to a better understanding of the case to view visual images involved in the case. 
         [0030]    Referring briefly to  FIG. 3 , database server  14  stores data that comprises images of design patents  17 , images of accused designs  18 , reported cases/decisions  19 , case summaries  20  and commentaries  22 . The visual images  17  and  18 , reported cases  19  and verbal descriptions  20  and  22  are organized in server  14  in such a manner that will enable all data corresponding to a particular case to be linked together, on demand from an end user, as will be described below. 
         [0031]    Referring back to  FIG. 2 , the visual image data can be assembled in server  14  from several different sources. For example, in connection with design patent infringement cases, one source of design patent images  17  is the publicly available USPTO website  26 . U.S. design patents are frequently only a few pages long (e.g., 3-6 pages), and it is not difficult or time-consuming to download electronic copies of complete design patents; they are available at no cost from the PTO website www.uspto.gov. 
         [0032]    Obtaining images of the accused designs  18  is more challenging, since, unlike the PTO website  26  for the patented designs, there is no single source for accused design images. In one preferred method, a physical sample of the accused design is purchased in the retail market (assuming, of course, that it can be located). Then, a digital camera  28  can be used to take photographs that would then be stored in server  14 . Utilizing this source of accused images  18  has the benefit of greatly reducing potential copyright problems with respect to the future use of the images. Another benefit is that the photographs taken of an accused design can be set up exactly as desired; it is often preferable to match the views of the accused design with the corresponding views of the patented design as they appear in the issued design patent. 
         [0033]    Alternatively, one can obtain images of the accused design from the court  24  in which the design patent case was litigated. In the event such images are stored by the court  24  in digital format, they can be directly loaded without substantial modification onto server  14 . In the event that such images are analog photographs, they need to be digitized by, e.g., a scanner  30 , before being input into database server  14 . It is possible that a copyright clearance would have to be obtained for such images of accused designs  18  before being used in the method of the present invention. 
         [0034]    Yet another alternate source of visual images of accused designs would be the attorneys  25  who litigated the case. Such attorneys may include lawyers for the patentee or accused infringer. It is more likely that such attorneys  25  would have visual images in digital form, so that they would not have to be scanned, but copyright clearance/permission would still be an issue. Alternatively, attorneys  25  might be able to loan an actual physical sample of the accused design, perhaps an exhibit that was used in court, which could then be photographed by camera  28  as previously described. 
         [0035]    The court  24  would also be one source of a digital version of the decision of a particular reported case  19  ( FIG. 3 ). Many reported cases are made freely available on various websites; for example, decisions from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit are available at www.II.georgetown.edu/federal/judicial/cafed.cfm. Other websites are available to access other court decisions, as is well known. 
         [0036]    It is contemplated that the actual reported court decision or case  19  would be complemented by a case summary  20  and a commentary  22 . The summary  20  and commentary  22  are preferably drafted, such as at  32  and  34 , by an expert in design patent law. These written summaries and commentaries would be uploaded into the database server  14  in the desired format, to be associated with the design patent image  17 , accused design  18  and reported case  19  for a particular design patent litigation. 
         [0037]    Scanner  30  could also be used to digitize paper documents of the reported case  19 , case summary  20  and/or commentary  22 , as may be necessary. 
         [0038]    Referring now to  FIG. 4 , there is illustrated a flowchart showing the interaction of an end user with the e-commerce image-retrieval method of the present invention. Initially, at  40  the user (attorney, designer, judge, law clerk, member of the public, etc.) logs on to the preferred website URL www.designlaw.com, and selects the e-commerce function associated with the image-retrieval method of the present invention. At  42 , an agreement is presented to the user by which the user will agree to certain basic terms that will permit limited use and control of the images and data that the user will download. Such basic terms may include, for example, that the user will use the images and other data only for a single purpose, and/or will agree to certain restrictions, e.g., not to disseminate the images and other data to anyone else without permission, or the like. The agreement is preferably in the form of a click-through agreement whereby the user indicates acceptance of the terms by clicking on various spots. 
         [0039]    At  44 , the user will be presented with a search menu with which the user may select one or perhaps multiple criteria for searching the database  14  for design patent cases. For example, the user might want to see all decisions from a particular court (e.g., the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, or only Federal District Court decisions), and/or only for a particular period of time (e.g., the last 5 years), and/or involving a certain important design patent legal issue (e.g., functionality, obviousness, infringement, on sale bar, double patenting, etc.), and/or a particular stage of a litigation (e.g., rulings on a preliminary injunction motion, Markman determination, motion for summary judgment, etc.), and/or involving a certain type of design (e.g., tires, toys, electronic products, medical devices, consumer products, toothbrushes, etc.). 
         [0040]    The search is conducted at  46 , and the cases that match the selected criteria are presented on the user&#39;s monitor at  48 , along with the cost of obtaining the data so selected. If the user wants all data that is displayed, the user then pays the corresponding price at  49 . The user will also be able to select certain ones of the cases displayed at  48 , and pay accordingly at  49 . It is contemplated that block  49  will be able to accept all major credit cards. 
         [0041]    At block  48 , non-downloadable thumbnails of the patent images  17  and accused designs  18  might appear, along with perhaps a case summary  20 , to give the user a glimpse of what is available for purchase. 
         [0042]    On the other hand, if the user does not like the search results/cost displayed at  48 , and wants to conduct another search, the user can cycle back to block  44  and run another search, presumably based on different criteria. 
         [0043]    Once the price is paid at  49 , the user can at  50  select one case and have the selected case displayed at  52 . For perhaps an extra fee, the user can download the selected case data at  53  in electronic form for use in a brief, opinion letter, or the like. 
         [0044]      FIG. 5  shows a simplified web page that the user would see at  52 . For example, the design patent image  17  could be presented in area  60 , preferably side by side at area  62  to the image of the accused design  18 . If more than one view of images were available to be compared for a particular case (e.g., front view, side view, perspective view, etc.), then the user could click on box  61  which would activate both areas  60  and  62  simultaneously to bring the next set of images to areas  60  and  62 . Alternatively, a plurality of such boxes  61  could be provided, each labeled corresponding to an available view (e.g., front view, top view, left side view, etc) that in turn corresponds to the set of images available to be viewed for a particular case. 
         [0045]    Preferably below image areas  60  and  62  are located a case summary area  64  and an expert commentary area  66  in which the corresponding case summary  20  and commentary  22  would appear. 
         [0046]    In addition, the user would be able to view and/or download the official reported decision of the case by clicking on box  68 . 
         [0047]    It is contemplated that additional information may be presented on screen  52 , such as related cases, major issues decided, etc. 
         [0048]    Referring back to  FIG. 4 , after displaying, viewing and/or downloading all selected cases at  52 ,  53 , the user may decide either to perform another search at  54  or to logout at  58 . 
         [0049]    Provision will be also made in the e-commerce method of the present invention for allowing users to subscribe to all reported cases from criteria they would select, e.g., a particular court, a particular issue, particular designs, etc. The relevant data relating to such cases (e.g., patented design, accused design, decision, summary, commentary, etc.) would be automatically sent to subscribers when it became available on database server  14 . Subscribers, who would pay a subscription fee, would not need to use the login system of  FIG. 4 . 
         [0050]    Obviously, numerous modifications of this method and system are possible. For example, not all of the resources described in  FIG. 1  need be made available through the home page. One or more of the resources (e.g., The Design Protection Association, the e-commerce image-retrieval method) may be established as a separate website entity with its own home page. Other resources in the field of design and law can be added as the need arises. 
         [0051]    Further, it should be understood that the simplified structure of the website represented in the drawings should not be limiting, inasmuch as it is representative only, and a more sophisticated website structure and/or architecture is anticipated as the website is constructed. 
         [0052]    Although embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.