Product Designs and Packaging Protection: Leveraging Trade Dress, Design Patent and Copyright

Mr. Carani is a Shareholder at McAndrews and has been at the firm since 1995. He practices in all areas of intellectual property law with a particular emphasis on design law, which regards the protection and enforcement of rights in the appearance of consumer products. Mr. Carani has extensive experience litigating design patent cases, including representations before U.S. district courts, the Federal Circuit, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the International Trade Commission. In each year since 2019, he has been named to the IAM Strategy 300: The World’s Leading IP Strategists list, with IAM magazine noting that he is “one of the world’s leading design patent strategists,” one of the U.S.’s “pre-eminent design law experts,” and “widely regarded as one of the country’s premier design patent lawyers.” In 2023, in Columbia Sportswear v. Seirus, Mr. Carani successfully argued a case of first impression before the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, creating new law on the issue of the proper scope of comparison prior art used in the design patent infringement analysis. He has extensive experience in creating valuable design right portfolios. He represents some of the world’s most design-centric companies, including the top filer of U.S. design patents. Mr. Carani has procured thousands of strategic design rights, both in the U.S. and in over 70 countries around the world. He counsels a wide range of clients (big and small) on design protection and enforcement issues and is often called upon to render infringement, validity, and design-around opinions.

Mr. Saidman is a pioneer in the field of design law, successfully representing clients in groundbreaking cases that have established the enforceability of design patents in court, cases such as Avia Group Int’l. v. LA Gear where the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a summary judgment holding that two design patents on tennis shoes were valid and willfully infringed, entitling the design patent owner to increased damages and attorney fees. During his career Mr. Saidman has prepared, prosecuted and supervised thousands of U.S. design patents.  He also has substantial experience in enforcement, having been involved in numerous design patent litigations both as counsel and as an expert witness. He has also penned many amicus curiae briefs in major cases before the Federal Circuit and Supreme Court.