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GM loses US appeal over fender design patent after rare full-court review
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GM loses US appeal over fender design patent after rare full-court review
May 21, 2024 2:05 PM

May 21 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday

overturned a win for GM in a patent dispute with

aftermarket auto-parts provider LKQ over fender designs,

upending a key element of design-patent law in a rare full-court

decision.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit threw out

a long-standing test for determining when a design patent is

valid and sent the case back for a U.S. Patent Office tribunal

to reconsider.

Representatives for GM did not immediately respond to a

request for comment on the decision. LKQ said in a statement

provided by its attorney Mark Lemley of Lex Lumina that the

decision is "a critical first step to ensuring consumers have a

range of safe, quality options when making vehicle repairs."

Design patents protect novel visual characteristics of

manufactured objects. LKQ asked the USPTO's Patent Trial and

Appeal Board in 2022 to cancel a GM design patent covering a

front vehicle fender after their licensing agreement expired and

GM threatened to sue for infringement.

LKQ argued GM's patent was invalid as obvious, citing two

earlier designs that it said created the same visual impression.

The board ruled for GM, and a three-judge panel at the Federal

Circuit affirmed the decision last year.

The full Federal Circuit agreed last June to rehear the

case, marking its first full-court rehearing in a patent case

since 2018. It said it would reconsider LKQ's argument that the

obviousness test for design patents was overruled by a 2007

Supreme Court decision that rejected "rigid and mandatory

formulas" for obviousness in the context of utility patents,

which cover inventions.

Auto-parts companies told the appeals court that upholding

the decision would make replacement parts more expensive and

harder to obtain. Apple ( AAPL ) and car companies including

Ford asked the court to keep the current test, which Apple ( AAPL )

argued would "maintain a predictable patent landscape for U.S.

design innovators."

The Federal Circuit agreed with LKQ on Tuesday that the

current test was "improperly rigid" and that courts should adopt

a "more flexible approach" that resembles the test for

utility-patent obviousness.

"This test has proven workable for utility patents and we

see no reason why it would not be similarly workable for design

patents," U.S. Circuit Judge Kara Stoll wrote.

The case is LKQ Corp ( LKQ ) v. GM Global Technology Operations LLC,

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, No. 21-2348.

For LKQ: Mark Lemley of Lex Lumina

For GM: Joseph Herriges of Fish & Richardson

Read more:

GM fender design victory in limbo after US appeals court

grants rare review

Rare patent argument attracts US government, suspended judge

(Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington)

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