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In Egyptian Goddess v. Swisa, the Federal Circuit recently ruled that the ordinary observer test is the sole test for determining design patent infringement, and it advised district courts they need not provide detailed verbal descriptions for design patents during claim construction. Many commentators heralded this decision as ushering in a new era for design protection in the United States. 2 While its holding should make it easier to enforce design patents, 3 the origin of its issues lies much deeper than claim construction verbalization or its test for infringement. Rather, the fundamental problem is that design patents simply cannot be viewed through the same substantive lens as utility patents. 4 Indeed, many of the issues in Egyptian Goddess and throughout the history of American design patent jurisprudence result from courts blindly forcing or tweaking substantive and procedural laws from the utility patent context to …