UCLA School of Law

This Essay draws on our empirical research into designers and their work to investigate the limits of intellectual property law for achieving its goal of progress in the design context. We focus on two related aspects of our research and also address a pressing doctrinal question in design patent law. The two research questions we discuss are: (1) how do designers conceive of and solve design problems through innovative design practice?; and (2) how do designers incorporate human values of coherence, inclusivity, and sustainability in their process, imbuing their practice with a kind of politics? The related doctrinal question concerns patent law's obviousness doctrine, which recently has been restored in the design patent context, but in ways we consider incomplete and to which we offer several improvements. Specifically, we emphasize the role of constraints under which designers work, and how those constraints can guide evaluation of the problems designers seek to solve.