[appathy]

Design patents are totally different than regular patents though. I have never heard of anyone getting sued because of a design patent.

[AlfaWolph]

One instance I know of is when Gibson Guitars sued Paul Reed Smith Guitars over the single-cut design Gibson uses for its Les Paul guitars (and won).

[KT]

No, you get sued then because of trade dress.

[bitwize]

Try putting your own beverage in bottles shaped like Coke's iconic curve bottle. Then you'll hear of it.

[mechanical_fish]

That's trademark law. Not the same thing as patent law, which in turn is not the same thing as copyright law.

[bitwize]

The design of a functional thing may be covered under a design patent; and indeed the Coke bottle shape is covered by such a patent.

Trademark law refers primarily to the design of nonfunctional things such as logos, the Deep Note sound, etc.