(Phys.org)—A jury in San Jose, Calif., recently found that Sam­sung Elec­tronics infringed on Apple’s patents, awarding the iPod man­u­fac­turer more than $1 bil­lion in dam­ages. We asked Susan Bar­bieri Mont­gomery, exec­u­tive pro­fessor of law and busi­ness at North­eastern Uni­ver­sity, to expound on a lesser-​​known form of intel­lec­tual prop­erty (IP): design-​​patent pro­tec­tion. Here, she dis­cusses Apple’s design patent on the phys­ical design of the iPad (U.S. Patent No. D618,677) and whether the role of this patent will inspire a surge in appli­ca­tions for U.S. design-​​patent protection.

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