Quote:
Originally Posted by N2IXK
The lightbulb companies would claim "prior art", as most of the tube envelopes and shape designations (S, G, GT, T, etc) were adopted from incandescent lamp bulbs...
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Well, not the light bulb companies, but the tube company being sued would claim prior art - but that's the correct idea.
Regarding "rectangular with rounded corners," that is a design patent or copyright, a different thing from a utility patent. My cousins own a consumer research company, and they have had many projects in which they were hired to do an unbiased survey of the general public to determine if there is brand confusion, that is, see if people consider one design to be "the same" as another. For example, they might pick a random sample of people exiting convenience stores, show them a beer bottle/label and ask what company they think makes that beer.