17 U.S.C. § 1309 : US Code - Section 1309: Infringement

Search 17 U.S.C. § 1309 : US Code - Section 1309: Infringement

(a) Acts of Infringement. - Except as provided in subsection (b),
it shall be infringement of the exclusive rights in a design
protected under this chapter for any person, without the consent of
the owner of the design, within the United States and during the
term of such protection, to -
(1) make, have made, or import, for sale or for use in trade,
any infringing article as defined in subsection (e); or
(2) sell or distribute for sale or for use in trade any such
infringing article.
(b) Acts of Sellers and Distributors. - A seller or distributor
of an infringing article who did not make or import the article
shall be deemed to have infringed on a design protected under this
chapter only if that person -
(1) induced or acted in collusion with a manufacturer to make,
or an importer to import such article, except that merely
purchasing or giving an order to purchase such article in the
ordinary course of business shall not of itself constitute such
inducement or collusion; or
(2) refused or failed, upon the request of the owner of the
design, to make a prompt and full disclosure of that person's
source of such article, and that person orders or reorders such
article after receiving notice by registered or certified mail of
the protection subsisting in the design.
(c) Acts Without Knowledge. - It shall not be infringement under
this section to make, have made, import, sell, or distribute, any
article embodying a design which was created without knowledge that
a design was protected under this chapter and was copied from such
protected design.
(d) Acts in Ordinary Course of Business. - A person who
incorporates into that person's product of manufacture an
infringing article acquired from others in the ordinary course of
business, or who, without knowledge of the protected design
embodied in an infringing article, makes or processes the
infringing article for the account of another person in the
ordinary course of business, shall not be deemed to have infringed
the rights in that design under this chapter except under a
condition contained in paragraph (1) or (2) of subsection (b).
Accepting an order or reorder from the source of the infringing
article shall be deemed ordering or reordering within the meaning
of subsection (b)(2).
(e) Infringing Article Defined. - As used in this section, an
"infringing article" is any article the design of which has been
copied from a design protected under this chapter, without the
consent of the owner of the protected design. An infringing article
is not an illustration or picture of a protected design in an
advertisement, book, periodical, newspaper, photograph, broadcast,
motion picture, or similar medium. A design shall not be deemed to
have been copied from a protected design if it is original and not
substantially similar in appearance to a protected design.
(f) Establishing Originality. - The party to any action or
proceeding under this chapter who alleges rights under this chapter
in a design shall have the burden of establishing the design's
originality whenever the opposing party introduces an earlier work
which is identical to such design, or so similar as to make prima
facie showing that such design was copied from such work.
(g) Reproduction for Teaching or Analysis. - It is not an
infringement of the exclusive rights of a design owner for a person
to reproduce the design in a useful article or in any other form
solely for the purpose of teaching, analyzing, or evaluating the
appearance, concepts, or techniques embodied in the design, or the
function of the useful article embodying the design.