Kyra Ducoat
Associate
Life Sciences + Design
Kyra is an associate patent attorney specializing in design and utility patent preparation and prosecution. She helps clients protect their innovations across a wide range of technologies, bringing a strong foundation in both science and law to every matter.
Kyra earned her Juris Doctor from Northeastern University School of Law and holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology with a Technology Specialization and a Bachelor of Arts in Criminology from the University of Florida. Additionally, Kyra has teaching experience in an interdisciplinary science laboratory, where she supported instruction across biology, chemistry, and physics. Her interdisciplinary background provides a unique perspective on the technical and legal challenges involved in intellectual property.
Prior to joining DesignLaw Group, LLC, Kyra clerked, and then served as an associate, at a boutique law firm, focusing on preparing and prosecuting patent applications spanning biotechnology, mechanical systems, and software technologies.
Kyra is a registered patent agent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), allowing her to provide clients with comprehensive guidance on patent strategy and protection.
Articles
DesignLaw Knowledge
Color
Since May 13, 2015, when the U.S. began participating in the WIPO Hague International Design System, the requirements of a fee and petition under 37 CFR 1.184(a)(2)(i) stating that color drawings are the only practical medium for illustrating the claimed design were eliminated. Nevertheless, the specification must still include a statement that:
“The file of this patent contains at least one drawing/photograph executed in color. Copies of this patent with color drawing(s)/photograph(s) will be provided by the Office upon request and payment of the necessary fee.”
Because color drawings may now be filed in a design application without the need for a petition, applicants may prefer to represent color using color drawings instead of using graphic symbols, but 37 CFR 1.84(n) indicates that graphic drawing symbols and other labeled representations may be used for conventional elements where appropriate, subject to approval by the Office.
The following symbols should be used to indicate various materials where the material is an important feature of the invention:
Solid black surface shading is not permitted except when used to represent the color black as well as color contrast.
Reissue
A reissue application can be filed when there is an error in the patent which makes it inoperable. There are three categories of errors that an applicant can show on a reissue application. These errors include defective specification, claiming more or less than they had a right to, and other errors (typically inventorship or priority issues).
A design reissue application can be filed based on the “error” of failing to include a design for a patentably distinct segregable part of the design claimed in the original patent or a patentably distinct subcombination of the claimed design.
A reissue design application claiming both the entire article and the patentably distinct subcombination or segregable part would be proper under 35 U.S.C. 251, if such a reissue application is filed within two years of the issuance of the design patent, because it is considered a broadening of the scope of the patent claim.
