Design Patents
A "utility patent" protects the way an article is used and works while a "design patent" protects the way an article looks. In order to qualify for a design patent, the design must be inseparable from the article to which it is applied. It cannot exist alone merely as a scheme of surface ornamentation. It must be a definite, preconceived thing, capable of reproduction and not merely the chance result of a method.
In other words, in order to qualify for a design patent, the claimed subject matter is the design embodied in or applied to an article or manufacture and not the article itself.
