Trade Dress : Concept And Indian Practice

Introduction

Trade dress refers to features of the visual or sensual appearance of a product that may also include its packaging, shape, combination of colors which may be registered and protected from being used by competitors in relation to their business and services. The characteristic includes their shape (3 dimensional), packaging, color, graphic design of the product.

Objective

Trade dress protection is intended to protect consumers from packaging or appearance of products that are designed to imitate other products; to prevent a consumer from buying one product under the belief that it is another. For Ex. Apple Inc. recently secured the registration over the design of its flagship Apple Stores as trade dress.