Trade Dress

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Trade dress is a sub-category of trademarks traditionally reserved for product packaging. However, it can also include product design itself if the design elements claimed are distinctive and allow the consumer to recognize a single source as the producer or seller of the goods. Well known product design cases include high heels with contrasting red soles, iconic electric guitar shapes, and the green color of night-time cold medicines. It is a high bar to clear, as asserting registrable trade dress is stating that consumers will recognize your product as coming from you—and only you—without even seeing your brand name. With this in mind, it should come as little shock that relatively few registrations are granted. …
Continue Reading Registers of the Lost Ark Bag Appeal: Cult Gaia’s Unsuccessful Trade Dress Application

The metaverse is a new way to engage with computers through artificial intelligence, widespread connectivity, augmented reality and virtual reality. This raises questions about protection of rights associated with property, including intellectual property and—particularly for retailers—IP rights concerning the provision of goods and services in a “virtual” world.
Continue Reading IP in the Metaverse: An Overview for Retailers in a New Landscape

Trade dress, which includes the total look of a product (size, shape, color) is registrable as a trademark if, like a trademark, it identifies the source of a product. Thanks to a recent decision, In re Forney Industries Inc., Appeal No. 2019-1073, by the US Federal Circuit Court of Appeals (Federal Circuit), it may now be easier for businesses to obtain federal trademark registration for some color-based product packaging trade dress.
Continue Reading Your Color-Based Product Packaging Mark Might Be Protectable Trade Dress

A federal court in Pennsylvania has held that Liberty Mutual must defend its insured, Hershey Creamery Company, in an intellectual property infringement lawsuit because the suit raises claims that potentially implicate coverage under the policies’ personal and advertising injury coverages. The court further found that the alleged wrongful conduct was not subject to the policies’ IP infringement exclusion.
Continue Reading IP Lawsuit Triggers Insurers’ Duty to Defend