U.S. Patent No. D826,814 S1 (‘814) issued on August 28, 2018, for “Instrument Panel.” It was issued to inventors Franz Von Holzhausen of Malibu, California, Ivan Lumpkin of Redondo Beach, California, Pascal Grappey of Rancho Palos Verdes, California, and Peter Blades-Nixon of Long Beach, California. The applicant/assignee is Tesla, Inc., a electric car and renewable energy company. This patent is a design patent under 35 U.S.C. §171, which protects the ornamental features of an article of manufacture. The features cover a car instrument panel design, which is, if designed as shown in the drawings, to cover the entire dashboard. Although materials are not protected nor claimed (these would be protected as a utility patent), it is presumably a digitized system.
Figure 1 below illustrates the ornamental features of the panel.
Under 35 U.S.C. §173, the ‘244 patent, like all design patents, has a patent term of 15 years, and expires on August 28, 2033 (MPEP 1505).
The U.S. Patent Classification is D12/192 (transportation, namely, parts, accessories and attachments not elsewhere specified, namely, instrument panel or element thereof).
Many tech companies are realizing the benefits of a patent portfolio, which include extensive design patent portfolios. Design patents are about 10% of all patents issued by the USPTO, and that number is growing steadily every year. Please contact Yonaxis for more information on design patents, or patents in general, if you have any questions.