Design Innovation and Technology Act of 1991: Effective Protection for the Aesthetic Aspects of Useful Articles, The;Note
Joseph M. DiRienzo · Journal of legislation · 1993
Design cannot be adequately defined in the abstract; it is best described as a creative decision-making process.'Through the process, a designer conceptualizes and adapts an idea into some tangible form capable of reproduction.2 Commercially successful products must be useful to consumers.However, designers consider more than just product utility when designing a product for commercial sale.Industrial designers attempt to design products that are attractive to consumers, easy to use, safe to have and to operate, easy and cheap to manufacture, and simple to repair.3 Industrial designers now consider the merger of aesthetic and utilitarian factors into a marketable product to be their most important design parameter.4 It is the merger of what a product must do with how the product looks that distinguishes true industrial design from mere artistic endeavor.5 The nexus between utility and appearance in industrial designs significantly impacts a product's success in the marketplace, because most consumer needs can be filled by any number of similar items, and appearance enhances consumer acceptance of a particular product within a larger field.6 This consumer acceptance is evidenced by the fact that aesthetically pleasing products outsell less attractive products with similar functions.7 As a result, work on the functional aspects of products yields simpler, more efficient designs, while unique looking designs are developed to make products more marketable.'The threat of design piracy becomes more significant as attractive designs become more successful in the marketplace."Design pirates" copy the design of an already existing product and market a product which is similar in appearance, but less costly, since the development costs have already been incurred by the design's original creator.9 Design piracy poses a number of problems for industrial designers.Obviously, a less expensive product can destroy the market for its 1.