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Any information, prior to 2011, which may invalidate this design patent:

D 641 464; Title: Air Freshener Dispenser Lid

In addition to Air Freshener lids, possibly jar lids, wheel stencils, shower heads, or anything having the pattern of holes of this design patent may help.

Potentially copyrighted designs, prior to 2011, may also help invalidate.

Walter Tencza
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  • Try adding the "prior art request" tag in a reworded question. – 3dalliance Jul 16 '16 at 17:53
  • Does this really matter. My understanding of design patents is you have to basically copy the shape to infringe. It should be trivial to just change the arrangement of holes to not look like the specified design. – Eric S Jan 17 '17 at 00:13

2 Answers2

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This prior art search has been posted for a while with little response. As I am not a patent attorney, this response is based on my best understanding and if there are inaccurate statements, I hope others will edit the answer.

This is a design patent and not a utility patent. Design patents cover ornamental design for an object having practical utility. As such, infringement is generally easily avoided. In this case, what is claimed is a particular arrangement of holes for an air freshener lid. A competitor would merely need to change the arrangement of holes to avoid infringement. Finding a similar arrangement of holes on a different object such as a shower head, or knitting pattern wouldn't constitute prior art since those objects aren't air freshener lids so they wouldn't invalidate the design patent.

My point is the request for examples of the same pattern of holes in objects other than an air freshener lid aren't of value as prior art so the question itself is off base. I understand that this doesn't "answer" the question, but I think it does educate the questioner.

Eric S
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I was thinking crochet forms may be similar:

Similar forms

https://www.pinterest.com/explore/crochet-round/

Also Lissajous figures may provide hits:

https://www.google.com/search?q=lissajous+figures&rlz=1C1FERN_enUS632US632&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&imgil=oy43Kl-RmFBSxM%253A%253BApFC-_bFOteNeM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.scielo.br%25252Fscielo.php%25253Fscript%2525253Dsci_arttext%25252526pid%2525253DS1806-11172013000300031&source=iu&pf=m&fir=oy43Kl-RmFBSxM%253A%252CApFC-bFOteNeM%252C&usg=__vimyGhEAzHfZt3nKZuA5x5sqW_E%3D&ved=0ahUKEwju3r6-uoLOAhVL1mMKHSf5AowQyjcIPA&ei=EqaPV-6NHsusjwOn8ovgCA#imgrc=oy43Kl-RmFBSxM%3A

you can search for similar images either on:

http://www.tineye.com/

or:

google images.

Good luck;)

If this answer is helpful either upvote it or select it as an answer.

Thank you

3dalliance
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  • Design patents are for articles of manufacture. A crochet pattern would be prior art to a crocheted item but is irrelevant to the lid of a specific type of container. – George White Nov 10 '22 at 23:46