The patent on the tiffany lucida possibly being expired was mentioned in a post recently and I decided to do a little digging. Here is the information I collected, am I wrong in concluding that it is?
Here is an article from the gia that describes the length of these patents:
https://www.gia.edu/doc/Legal-Protection-for-Proprietary-Diamond-Cuts.pdf
It says a diamond utility patent is protected for 20 years from the date of filing and a diamond design patent is 14 years from the date of issue. It seems like those dates are in 1998 and 2002 respectively for the lucida.
Here are the links to the patents I was able to find on the lucida that say they are expired in the US
https://patents.google.com/patent/US5970744
https://patents.google.com/patent/US6363745B1/en
https://patents.google.com/patent/USD463315S1/en?assignee=Tiffany+And+Company
Am I missing something that would still make copying the cut not allowed? As these patents contain blueprints of the cuts, would a diamond cutter be able to copy them? Thanks for any help or insight on this matter!
Here is an article from the gia that describes the length of these patents:
https://www.gia.edu/doc/Legal-Protection-for-Proprietary-Diamond-Cuts.pdf
It says a diamond utility patent is protected for 20 years from the date of filing and a diamond design patent is 14 years from the date of issue. It seems like those dates are in 1998 and 2002 respectively for the lucida.
Here are the links to the patents I was able to find on the lucida that say they are expired in the US
https://patents.google.com/patent/US5970744
https://patents.google.com/patent/US6363745B1/en
https://patents.google.com/patent/USD463315S1/en?assignee=Tiffany+And+Company
Am I missing something that would still make copying the cut not allowed? As these patents contain blueprints of the cuts, would a diamond cutter be able to copy them? Thanks for any help or insight on this matter!