By Robert G. Oake, Jr.
Robert G. Oake, Jr. specializes in design patent litigation. He is a registered patent attorney and is board certified as a civil trial advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Robert earned a master of laws degree in patent and intellectual property law (with highest honors) from The George Washington School of Law, a general master of laws with concentrations in international business and technology transfer law from the SMU School of Law, and a J.D. from South Texas College of Law, where he was school moot court champion his first year and state moot court champion his third year.
Robert served as lead trial and appellate counsel for Egyptian Goddess, Inc. in Egyptian Goddess v. Swisa (en banc). Robert maintains legal websites at www.oake.com and www.designpatentschool.com. He may be contacted at rgo@oake.com.
Surveys are seldom attempted and rarely admitted in design patent infringement cases.1 Prior to Egyptian Goddess,2 there may have been good reason for that. But in a post-Egyptian Goddess world, the value of surveys should be reconsidered. To understand why, let's first explore why surveys are common in ...
