The construction industry is built upon the innovations of new building techniques, tools, and materials, and inventors can protect their intellectual property rights by filing for U.S. patents.

Most construction patents are utility patents, but some construction inventions can also be protected under design patents.

The Difference Between Utility Patents and Design Patents

U.S. patent laws define three basic types of patents:

• Utility Patents
• Design Patents
• Plant Patents

While plant patents do not pertain to the construction industry – these patents protect new and distinct varieties of asexually reproduced plants – both utility and design patents apply.

According to Davis Kuelthau Attorneys at Law, the difference between utility patents and design patents is:

• Utility Patents: Utility patents are by far the most common type of patent with over 11 million issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Utility patents are for utilitarian inventions such as machines, processes, compositions of matter, and articles of manufacture.

A utility patent has a written description section and a claims section. Most utility patents also include drawings or figures, but in some cases, the invention can be adequately described without any drawings. After the patent issues, the USPTO charges maintenance fees to keep the patent in force for its full lifetime. If the patent owner fails to pay the required maintenance fee at approximately 4, 8, and 12 years from issuance, the patent will prematurely lapse.

• Design Patents: Almost 1 million design patents have been issued by the USPTO. A design patent protects the ornamental appearance of a thing rather than its utilitarian function.  Protection is defined by the appearance of the design as shown by the drawings, which are thus required in a design patent. The description is typically limited to a title of what the design pertains to, such as “bottle” or “electronic device,” and very little added description.

Unlike utility patents, an application for a design patent is not published by the USPTO before the patent issues. Also, the term for a design patent is 15 years measured from the date of issue, rather than 20 years from the filing date for a utility patent, and no maintenance fees are required.

How Patents are Put to Use in the Construction Industry

In the construction industry, we can find patents, both utility patents and design patents, used in a variety of ways including:

• Patents for building materials and methods of construction, such as new types of concrete or insulation.
  
  
• Patents for construction tools and equipment, such as power tools, cranes, and scaffolding.
  
  
• Patents for building systems and technologies, such as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, electrical systems, and plumbing systems.
  
  
• Patents for construction software and methods, such as project management software, building information modeling (BIM) software, and 3D printing methods for construction.
  
  
• Patents for structural designs and architectural features, such as new ways of designing buildings to improve energy efficiency or withstand natural disasters.

Examples of Utility Patents vs. Design Patents in Construction

Attorney Mikel J. Hoffman says that “in the construction industry, both utility patents and design patents can mean substantial profits to the builders or contractors who hold them.”

He provides the following example of how utility patents and design patents might work in construction:

• Utility Patents: In construction, the process of constructing a building or other structure can be patentable. Patents are not limited to the processes used for new construction. Processes used in the renovation or alteration of existing structures can also be patented as can equipment and tools used in the construction industry. As examples, the USPTO has issued patents for in-ground pipeline monitoring, a roof shingle system, a method for building a house starting from a packaged structure, a method for moving and aligning modular house units onto a foundation, and a method for retrofitting the surface of a house or building.
  
  
• Design Patents: USPTO has granted patents for various house facades, an ornamental design for a base bracket that supports a brick veneer wall from a house foundation wall, a combined illuminated house number and doorbell, and a decorative house louver.

Protect Your Legal Rights with These Other Options

Patterson Intellectual Property Law says there are other options to help protect your rights when it comes to construction inventions besides utility patents and design patents. Options include:

• Trademark Protection: Names, logos, building designs, property layouts, and product colors can all receive protection via trademark registration.
  
  
• Architectural Copyright: Designs, plans, instruction manuals, blueprints, layouts, and CAD files can receive protection via copyright registration.

Some construction company owners overlook trademark options, which can be governed by both federal and state laws.

“Owners of construction management companies are as savvy business-wise as they are in matters of concrete and steel: it’s what they – and you – have built their success on. There is one area, however, that proves to be a recurring blind spot: the issue of trademark protection,” says Gerben Intellectual Property. “For any number of reasons, trademarks can take a backseat to nearly every other facet of the construction management business: from getting the business started, to generating leads, to making sales, to actually carrying out projects. In the midst of all that, it’s easy to forget that a registered trademark is as important to your business as the structural integrity of your next project.”

Architectural copyright, created in 1990 by the passing of the Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act (AWCPA) to protect the intellectual property of an architect hinges on two major elements, according to the AIA:

• You cannot copyright an idea, only original expressions of that idea.
• Certain elements of architectural design are so common that they are, by law, unprotected.

“The level of copyright protection depends upon the subject matter and original creativity contained in the plans. One cannot copyright the “idea” of a kitchen. If that were so, only one architect could design kitchens. Small differences are usually enough to avoid copyright infringement, but as the complexity of the design increases there should be equally significant differences between plans to ensure no copyright infringement is occurring,” says the AIA.

Green Span Profiles Relies on Patented Materials

Green Span manufactures the highest-quality insulated panels in the United States thanks to the use of patented materials and techniques.

RidgeLine, Green Span Profiles standing-seam roof panel, for example, uses a patented tee-seam which allows for sliding the panels together rather than lifting and/or rolling the panels into place.

Green Span Profiles also uses patent-pending wall reinforcement plates (BAC clips) that eliminate back-fastening, which allows panels to better perform as intended and saves money and time.

Contact Green Span Profiles today to find out how our patented insulated metal panel technologies can help with your construction project.