Egyptian Goddess attracts further attention

Above: the ornamental nail buffer, subject of the contentious US design patent in Egyptian Goddess v Swisa.

Class 99 has already had cause to visit the US jurisprudence on design protection in the light of the decision last year in Egyptian Goddess v Swisa Inc (see "US Designs - Validity post-Egyptian Goddess"). That decision preferred a comparison of designs based on the perspective of the "ordinary observer" knowledgeable of the prior art to a test for infringement based on a "point of novelty" inquiry.

Egyptian Goddess has just found herself the subject of contemplation in Europe again, with the publication in the November 2009 European Intellectual Property Review (well done, Sweet & Maxwell, to get the EIPR out so early!) of a substantial note by Bird & Bird's Lorna Brazell entitled "Is Design Law in the United States and European Union Converging? The Egyptian Goddess Faces Up to the Snake". Those interested in pursuing Egyptian Goddess further, from a purely US perspective, may want to take a peep at the note by Charles Macedo (Amster, Rothstein and Ebenstein) in the April issue of OUP's Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice (JIPLAP).