Egyptian Goddess appealed from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas' grant of Summary Judgment of noninfringement of the design patent on the grounds that the alleged infringing product did not appropriate the point of novelty of the claimed design. 
| The patent-at-issue covered an "ornamental nail buffer" with a hollow tubular frame and with abrasive pads attached to the sides of the frame. The embodiment of the patent, as shown in its illustration, had four sides. The accused design had three sides. The District Court for the Northern District of Texas found, and the Federal Circuit agreed that the design elements of the accused device did not appropriate the point of novelty of the design elements of the patented design. The Federal Circuit noted that, in order to assert that a design infringes on an existing, patented design, the accused design must have the same "point of novelty" as the patented design. The patentee may craft its contentions about the what point of novelty is, but must ultimately show that the design elements that constitute this "point of novelty" present a "non-trivial advance over the prior art." Finding that the combination of design elements that Egyptian Goddess contended comprised its point of novelty combination all existed in the prior art, the Federal Circuit upheld the district court's noninfringement determination. Judge Dyk issued a dissenting opinion contending that the majority's "non-trivial advance" standard was a new rule for the "point of novelty" test. |