Tips on Registering Product Configuration Trade Dress
There are two major hurdles to registration of product configuration trade dress at the USPTO: functionality and distinctiveness. In the latest Trademark Reporter, Karen Feisthamel, Amy Kelly, and Johanna Sistek provide helfpul advice on how to approach those hurdles, and maybe even clear them. "Trade Dress 101: Best Practices for the Registration of Product Configuration Trade Dress with the USPTO," 95 Trademark Reporter 1374 (November-December 2005).
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Samara Bros., Inc., 529 U.S. 205, (2000)
For more discussion of this article and of the topic in general, go to this posting at the TTABlog.
[The TMR article is Copyright 2005 the International Trademark Association and is reprinted, with permission, from the Trademark Reporter, 95 TMR 1374 (November-December 2005).]