QUESTION
Are orthotic sandals/heels/flats patented or copyrighted?
Asked on Dec 27th, 2014 on Patents - California
More details to this question:
Are orthotic sandals/heels/flats patented or copyrighted? If so, what can I do in order to legally design, manufacture, and sell orthotic sandals/heels/flats? Will I need to make some kind of agreement with the holders of the patent/copyright? Also, are shoe designs protected by copyright (i.e. white flowers on the strap)? If so, how can I make sure that my designs don't infringe on any such copyrights? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
1 ANSWER
First, copyrights are only infringed by copying, so if you having copied, e.g., a flow image that you put on the straps, you cannot infringe the copyright of a flower image that you never saw and just happens to be similar. Copyrights fo not cover sturctural features of orthotic sandals/heels/flats nor do they cover the ornamental appears of sturctural features of orthotic sandals/heels/flats which are covered by patents and design patents respectively. You need to contact a patent attorney to arrange to have a search of unexpire patents and design patents to see if any of them would cover the sandals/heels/flats that you intend to sell.
Answered on Jan 05th, 2015 at 12:55 PM