U.S. Patent No. D907,885 S1 (‘885) issued on January 21, 2021, for “Funerary Urn.” It was issued to inventor Alex Borzaga of Cavareno, Italy. The applicant/assignee is Fenicetek of Turin, Italy. This patent is a design patent under 35 U.S.C. §171, which protects the ornamental features of an article of manufacture. The features protect the urn and its design. The materials’ compositions are not protected nor claimed because these would be protected as a utility patent. The ‘885 patent appears to protect the Florea product line.
Figure 1 below illustrates the ornamental features of the claimed design.
Under 35 U.S.C. §173, the ‘885 patent, like all design patents, has a patent term of 15 years, and expires on January 12, 2036 (MPEP 1505).
The ‘885 application was filed as a Hague System application for designs on July 10, 2018, of which the U.S. is a member. The applicant, Fenicetek, is based in northern Italy, and its issuance by the USPTO is unsettling and timely given Italy’s particularly deadly coronavirus outbreak in 2020-21.
For more information on design patents, or the Hague System for International Registration of Industrial Designs, please contact Yonaxis IP.