Intellectual Property, Business, and Estate Planning

King Patent Law, PLLC

Protecting your ideas, business, and legacy

Petrifying Patents – Devilish Design Patents

Welcome to what are essentially the cartoons before the main feature in this year’s Halloween-related videos about intellectual property.

I’m Julie King, of King Patent and Business Law, your witchy guide to all things dark and mysterious in the world of patents, trademarks, copyright, trade secrets, confidential information, and more. You may not know it, but they are all around you, every day, almost everywhere you go. You can’t escape them.

I must warn you that this is for educational and entertainment purposes only. This is not legal advice, it doesn’t create an attorney-client relationship, and this does NOT make me your lawyer.

Last year I covered some Trademark Tales of Terror about popular horror films. This year I’ll be talking about patents ranging from cute accessories to truly bizarre inventions. I want to note that I’m not the attorney for any of these patents. I just found these by doing a search in Google patents.

I’ll be talking about inventions that help collect candy, creepy costumes, ghoulish games, and some truly bizarre patents that deal with death. Those are all utility patents for how things work.

First I’m just going to show some Halloween and horror-related design patents, which are just for how things look. Design patents last for 15 years rather than the 20 utility patents can last, and the applications are much more simple because the claim is simply the drawings of how the invention looks rather than a carefully crafted list of components or methods.

There are a couple here you will know well and some that may surprise you.

Design patents can be issued for all kinds of inventions that are about how something that is manufactured looks. Sometimes you can also get a separate utility patent for how the invention works.

There are some design patents for those Halloween inflatables you see everywhere, and this is one of them. There are also utility patents for how they work.

Here are a few design patents for decorations: a gruesome head decoration, a skull decoration that has a light-up crystal ball replacing the top part of the skull, and a Halloween vampire decoration.

Next is one that is for a costume accessory, a glove with claws at the ends of the fingertips.

This one is for a haunted keylight. Again, nothing to do with how the keylight works, just how it looks.

Similarly, we have a ghost-shaped drinking fountain.

Finally, we have some toys. This one is for a simple ghost toy.

Our last one is famous. It’s the LEGO® toy ghost!

If you want to learn more about utility patents through some chilling examples, or if you’re just curious about patents for creepy things and Halloween things, check out the other episodes dropping each day this week. See you then, if you dare!

October 29, 2024

Julie King

Julie is a licensed patent attorney and the founding attorney at King Patent Law, PLLC, with over 25 years of legal experience. Her practice focuses on intellectual property, business, and estate planning, and she's passionate about helping clients use IP tools to protect and grow their businesses. When she's not helping clients, you can find her at a live rock show, watching a horror movie, or playing the guitar (badly).

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This content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your specific situation, consult with a licensed attorney.

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