Can copyright or design-patent law protect the appearance of a functional product such as Fender's Stratocaster?

The BKK Beat is a video series from the attorneys at Bean, Kinney & Korman, bringing viewers an inside look at news narratives through BKK's legal lens.

In Episode 30, Kandis Koustenis and Tim Hughes continue their Fender Stratocaster series. After examining copyright, trademark, and trade dress, they turn to copyright protection for useful articles and design-patent protection for ornamental product designs.

They discuss the useful-article doctrine and the separability test: whether an artistic feature can be identified separately from, and exist independently of, a product's utilitarian function. A table lamp provides the visual example before they apply the analysis to the guitar body.

Kandis and Tim then consider design patents, articles of manufacture, ornamental design, the limited term of patent protection, and why businesses should evaluate those rights before a successful product design has been in the marketplace for decades.

This is Part 3 of the series.