Since last year's introductory patent presentation, a number of critical events have unfolded, further evidencing the increasing value of patents and other intellectual property in user experience design. While the patent war between Apple and Samsung rages on, companies like Google and Facebook are actively lobbying to change the value and meaning of design patents.
Understanding intellectual property and protecting your UX design solutions has never been more important, but patent law isn’t taught in design school and many designers have limited exposure in their work.
This presentation by design patent experts will cover recent trends in UX patents from the perspectives of design, business, and law, including:
How to understand user interface related patents
A review of recent relevant cases
Implications for the design process
Extensive audience Q&A time
Presentation on how to chat with PDF using ChatGPT code interpreter
Intellectual Property and UX Design - The Preceding Year and the Next Decade
1. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
AND UX DESIGN
THE PRECEDING 150 YEARS
AND THE FUTURE
@ROBTANNEN
UXPA 2016
- Intro, UX and Industrial design & research, EY, Expert Design Witness Certification from IDSA, consulted on several technology patent applications and cases
-Presenting on importance of IP in user experience design for several years; last year well received at UXPA
-A little different than the program
-Change to title (150 instead of one), UX from the 19th century?
-Solo, not with Charles Mauro, had to be in court
3. BASICS OF
PATENTS?
WHAT IS THE
VALUE OF
DESIGN?
-We talk a lot about the value of design in a general sense - how it improves user’s lives or contributes to society
-But I mean it in a literal sense - how do we put a business value on design, as well as a financial value
-And I don’t mean that in a cynical way; I mean in a legal and economic system how do we want to value design - comes down to a holistic versus atomic interpretation
of design
-In order to address that question
4. 1. Basics of UX Patents
2. A Personal Timeline of UX Patents
3. The Future of Design
4. Q&A
WHAT WE WILL COVER
-First I’ll start with a high level overview of UX patents
-I’ll then take you through a whirlwind tour of the last 150 years of patents related to UX designs, and how it has overlapped with my personal experience in the field
- We’ll discuss and forecast how an upcoming Supreme Court decision could affect the field of UX in a very significant way
-This is literally changing day by day - I was working on this last night…
-Finally we’ll have time fore questions, there were lots of those last year
5. BASICS OF
PATENTS!
I AM NOT A LAWYER
THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE
THIS IS COMPLICATED STUFF
Have simplify without dumbing down
But even legal experts struggle to keep this stuff straight
6. BASICS OF
PATENTS1BASICS OF
UX PATENTS1
-For the audience how many of you have a patent that is UX related? Use patents in your UX work?
-Let me begin by saying that there’s no such things as “UX Patents” it’s a term of convenience, or at least a significant oversimplification
27. BASICS OF
PATENTS2
A PERSONAL
TIMELINE OF
UX PATENTS
-Now I’m going to give a brief review of key events over the last 150 years, both generally and personally
-The goal is to show where we’ve come from and to provide context for where we are going
28. 1842
-Before I was born and before there was user interfaces but it’s important
-Mattered for things like spoons and carpets
-First design patent law to differentiate between utility and design patents
52. April 2011: Apple sues Samsung. Claims infringement of patents
July 2012: Apple v. Samsung jury first trial begins in California
Aug. 2012: Jury returns verdict. Apple is awarded $1.05 billion
Nov. 2013: Retrial due to jury error
APPLE/SAMSUNG TIMELINE - PART 1
-But that wasn’t the end, that was really only the beginning
55. April 2014: Second trial, Apple awarded $120 million
Dec. 2015: Samsung agrees to pay Apple $548 million for original
trial.
Feb 2016: $120 million appealed, “Slide to Unlock” patent invalidated.
March 2016: Supreme Court agrees to hear Samsung appeal related
to interpretation of patent law.
APPLE/SAMSUNG TIMELINE - PART 2
-At the same time additional Apple/Samsung cases and appeals continued
-Notable this past Dec Samsung agreed to pay Apple $548 million
-But then in February the “Slide to Unlock” utility patent - not the design patent, was invalidated due to prior art - meaning examples were found of similar enough
interfaces in the public domain before the patent was filed, that took away the Novelty and Non-Obviousness of the patent
-Most importantly perhaps Samsung requested the Supreme Court review the “total profits” aspect of design patent law, which takes us to…
60. Nothing changes
Validation of the value of design; greater emphasis
on visual differentiation
Overvalues design patents over utility patents;
inhibits technical innovation
Potential increase in design patent litigation
STATUTE IS AFFIRMED
-Law works; we have a major case every 100 years or so
-Yes, in fact, Samsung has differentiated and focused on design
-Cup holder law suits
-Some companies are mistakenly asking for full profits for utility patent infringement, bad lawyers
61. Design patents become intrinsically less valuable
Increased cost and complexity to determining
infringement and proportional value of design
Potential de-valuing of design; low cost of
infringement
Influence on design towards an integrated “article of
manufacture”
CHANGE TO LAW
How do you calculate portion - cost of production/materials or value to consumer in purchase process? Interesting situations for design researchers
Samsungs experts posited that at most only 5% of profits were attributable to design