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In order to be patented, an invention need to be useful. Can aesthetic features be considered useful (helps selling the product)?

For example, you have a door with a whole new mechanism that when you close it, there is no visible separation between wall and door, it looks good, but no other use. Can that new door be patented? It is new, non obvious, it is very useful in the sense that it helps selling the door.

But on the other hand, if aesthetic features can be patented then I can see artistic patents on shape, color...

The question is more about engineered works to achieve aesthetic features.

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You can't patent an idea, but you can patent implementation of an idea. "Aesthetics" is as much as an idea as a "smart phone".

If your implementation contains an element that is novel and not obvious to a person skilled in the art, then it can be patented. For example, in the case of a door knob, if your design reduces the number of component so to make it more compact, then it's patentable. Note that here the purpose is to make the knob more compact, not pretty. However, if the construction is same as a typical knob, with the only difference being the shape, then the examiner might reject such novelty as strictly ornamental.

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