Which patents were involved in Apple v. Samsung? addresses a lot of design patents. Is there an online repository of design patents we can link to?
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Design patents typically contain very little original text, and the entire scope of the design patent is defined by the various drawings submitted the patent. One problem with this is that we still don't have search tools that are very good at searching for images. As such, design patent examination tends to be very low quality - although it is better than in Europe where design rights are registered without examination.– Dennis CrouchCommented Sep 21, 2012 at 17:10
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3 Answers
Like Luis said, Google Patents has them. Just make sure to format the number as "USDXXXXXX" (e.g., USD504889). You can also use the PTO's search using the format "DXXXXXX" and then clicking on the "Images" link on the page containing the specification (warning: their imaging tech is extremely outdated, I think you need Quicktime (!) or another TIFF plugin viewer since it's an element).
Google patents has only US design patents. Most of countries have their own patent and registered design databases. For example here is German desings database: http://register.dpma.de/DPMAregister/gsm/einsteiger There are also some regional design systems. For example here you can search European Community registered designs: http://esearch.oami.europa.eu/copla/advanced#/designs And here is search tool for international registrations of industrial design: http://www.wipo.int/ipdl/en/hague/
Google patents has at least some design patents; not sure if it is complete or not.
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I haven't looked for those specific ones, but they do have Apple design patents; see for example the glass staircase design patent: google.com/…– LuisCommented Sep 21, 2012 at 21:57