Patents for Jewelry Designs

Originally patent laws were constituted in 1641 in the United States for the Massachusetts Bay colony in reference to manufacturing salt. When the Constitution of the United States became effective in 1789 the Congress was given special power to administer federal patent laws. The Congress introduced the federal patent law in 1790. There were laws made for jewelry design patent.

Jewelers were granted two types of patents. It started in 1850 to guard from copying from major competitors. Patents for designs protect the idea behind the design and how it’s done while the utility patents guard how the product works or being used.

There is a separate numbering system for the utility patents and design patents and wherein the former has a higher count. There is also a difference in the length of time between the design and the utility patent as the former will only last upto 7 years with the average of 3 1/2 while utility patent could work for 17 years. There are some companies who didn’t use the patent system.

The reason for not using the patent system is that some designs were not going to be produced for any longer than one season. Patents cost money and can be in the range of $60 or even higher. Some companies didn’t waste their time and funds to get patents since it only lasted for a few years and it could easily be dodged.

The utility design mechanisms go longer until two decades giving the individual a time frame as to when the mechanism was introduced. However, this does not help to tell exactly when the jewelry was made. Because the design patent is shorter people are given a smaller time frame to know when the jewelry was made. Even though the patent expires, the company may still use the design so you may have some inaccuracy there.

Copyright laws were reformed in 1947 to give way for jewelry makers to give copyright to their designs. Since this was introduced, the need for patents decreases. In 1955 the Trifari Company brought a suit against the Charel Jewelry company. They claimed that they infringed upon their “bolero” costume jewelry designs. As compared to patents copyrights is said to be more proficient and valuable since it could gain faster approval last longer and cost less. There is a small copyright symbol you can find beside the company’s name to show that they have a copyright on the jewelry.

Jewelry patents, although phased out for the most part, still provide some interesting views from the past.