Fresh From the Bench: Latest Federal Circuit Court Cases

CASE OF THE WEEK

Automotive Body Parts Ass’n. v. Ford Global Techs., LLC, Appeal No. 2018-1613 (Fed. Cir. July 23, 2019)

Our case of the week is a design patent case. It concerns two primary issues—what types of functionality can render a design patent invalid, and whether patent exhaustion and repair rights apply to design patents.

The patents at issue cover the hood design and headlight design for a pickup truck, and are the designs used in the Ford F-150:

Plaintiff, an association of companies that distribute automotive body parts, sued Ford seeking a declaratory judgment of invalidity or unenforceability of the two patents. It sought summary judgment that the patents were invalid as primarily functional, and that the patents were unenforceable against auto parts companies, who were free to sell these products under the doctrines of patent exhaustion and repair. The district court denied summary judgment and instead sua sponte granted final judgment to Ford.