What is a Design Patent?

A design patent is a particular type of patent. A design patent protects the ornamental appearance of an article of manufacture exactly as shown in the drawings. It does not protect any functional features of the article shown in the drawings and does not protect any features not shown. For example, if the actual object produced or sold by the design patent owner has certain ornamental features on its back and these were not shown in the drawings of the patent, then those features can be copied by anyone else.