WHAT IS TRADE DRESS?
28-Dec-2006
Trade dress focuses on the total image of one’s product or packaging. It is not just a single word or phrase that denotes your product; it is the overall appearance or look of the packaging.
The Eleventh Circuit Court has defined trade dress as involving "the total image of a product and may include features such as size, shape, color or color combinations, texture, graphics, or even particular sales techniques."
Trade dress, just like a trademark or servicemark, is protected at common law and can be protected on a federal level as well. However, whatever you are attempting to register as trade dress must be identifying and distinguishable.
A few examples of federally protected trade dress are the shape of LIFESAVERS candy with a hole, the LEVI tab affixed at the vertical seam of a back pocket of pants, and the colored bands on an ADIDAS athletic shoe.
Trade dress focuses on the total image of one’s product or packaging. It is not just a single word or phrase that denotes your product; it is the overall appearance or look of the packaging.
The Eleventh Circuit Court has defined trade dress as involving "the total image of a product and may include features such as size, shape, color or color combinations, texture, graphics, or even particular sales techniques."
Trade dress, just like a trademark or servicemark, is protected at common law and can be protected on a federal level as well. However, whatever you are attempting to register as trade dress must be identifying and distinguishable.
A few examples of federally protected trade dress are the shape of LIFESAVERS candy with a hole, the LEVI tab affixed at the vertical seam of a back pocket of pants, and the colored bands on an ADIDAS athletic shoe.
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