How long do design patents last? Their terms are limited to 14 or 15 years in the United States, generally. Apparently there is one exception for the American Legion, though.
20180811/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_patent
20180811/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Apple_v_Samsung_design_patent.png
20180811/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Legion
20180811/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_design_rights
20180811/DuckDuckGo design patent expires can it ever be renewed
united states
20180811/https://info.legalzoom.com/happens-patent-expires-20317.html
But, the big point in hand is this. What intellectual property issues should you worry about if you are doing a big 3D scanning project? Thanks to the limits of patents, we have a clear list of things that you do not need to worry about, especially if you are scanning older, historic objects.
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Rule of thumb: if you know the age of the object exceeds the term limit of some intellectual property law in question, its use is unrestricted.
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Design patents: 14-15 year limit
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Utility patents: 20 year limit
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Trademark: Renewable indefinitely. However, its use is permissible under fair use in “photographic” style uses, where the primary use is to convey the look of the object, not to sell it.
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Copyright: As of 2018, term limit unknown. Legislation has been continually increasing the copyright term limits to a rare number of high-value items from ceding into the public domain.
Due to the vagueness of copyright law, the correct way to interpret it is from opposite de jure and de facto viewpoints.
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The de jure viewpoint states that copyright term limits may be 70, 90, or 120 years after the date of publication.
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The de facto standpoint states that copyright is not enforced on the vast majority of copyrighted items older than 28 years. Only a very rare number of well-known items older than 28 years that are clearly known to have active parties enforcing the copyright on them are covered.
Also, the type of media in question has a strong influence on the longevity of the de facto copyright. Particularly, items that are very cheap to manufacture such as books, movies, music, and video games are most likely to have long-standing copyright enforcement. More difficult to manufacture objects three-dimensional objects, especially those not inspired from an easy to manufacture media source, are least likely to have a long-term copyright enforcement.
Furthermore, the de facto standpoint states that for these most popular items, chances are that they may be copyrighted indefinitely, unless and until a court case proves that the original copyright was never valid to begin with.
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