The New York Times calls this “The Lamp That’s Taking Over New York”. The Times calls it “a sleek newcomer” and says “the Pina Pro is appearing on droves of outdoor tables in the city — and sometimes disappearing, as diners fall for its mellow glow.” (Article dated August 11, 2022.)
Is it not protected by a design patent?
This lamp is rechargeable. Its light is warm white. What you find is that the name-brand lamp costs $160, and lookalike lamps cost $25 if you don’t mind waiting a few weeks for delivery from a foreign country. The name-brand lamp has a proprietary charging base that is a different color than the lamp itself. The lookalike lamps use a standard USB C charging cable.
Which then leads to the question — did the designer of the name-brand lamp obtain design patent protection for the lamp?
It seems to me that this elegant, striking, out-of-the-ordinary-shaped lamp would be as strong a candidate for US design patent protection as any consumer product in recent years. Yet I did a bit of searching in patent databases and I was unable to find a US design patent for this lamp. I wonder if an alert reader can find a US design patent for this lamp?
Maybe the design is functional and there is a utility patent application pending?
I did an assignment search on Zafferano, the company that apparently produces this lamp, and found D878664 for “Lamp,” but it’s not the same one. The company clearly knows about design patents, though, so perhaps the an application on this lamp is still pending.
Thank you for commenting. Yes I found that design patent also. Clearly the company knows how to file design patent applications.
According to the New York Times article, the lamp was put on sale in February of 2020. That’s a long time for a US design application to still be pending and not yet issued.
One of my clients has a design patent application that has been pending (not entered prosecution yet) for just under 3 years, and another is at about 2.5 years – while there are always exceptions, my docket has generally experienced design patent pendency increasing significantly since the beginning of COVID (whether directly related or not).