Authored by: Ian Al on Sunday, August 12 2012 @ 12:26 PM EDT |
I'd give you a wave, but that is Coca Cola's trade dress, as well.
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Regards
Ian Al
Software Patents: It's the disclosed functions in the patent, stupid![ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Wol on Sunday, August 12 2012 @ 12:31 PM EDT |
In the UK, I think the bottle is actually trademarked. I know we often think of
trademarks as words, but that's not necessarily so.
Indeed, trademark number one in the UK register is still in active use, and is a
shape - a red triangle. Bass bitter. Lovely...
Cheers,
Wol[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, August 16 2012 @ 03:16 AM EDT |
The Coke Bottle is actually a 3-dimensional trademark. You
can trademark almost anything that is used to identify the
origins of your product, such as sounds, smells and yes,
shapes of containers.
Think of "Trade Dress" is the overall "look and feel" of
something that tends to show the origins of a product. For
instance, you could open a fast-food burger place and make
the building, layout, and everything else look exactly like
a McDonald's, without actually using any of its trademarks.
Say the building looks just like a McDonald's building, you
use the same tables and chairs, the same equipment in the
children's playroom, make similar food, wrap it the same
way, and your employees wear similar uniforms.
McDonald's could decide to sue you on trade dress violation,
arguing that, even though you are not directly using any of
its trademarks, you are copying the overall "look and feel"
of McDonald's to the extent that you are causing confusion
among consumers (e.g., consumers mistakenly believe that
your restaurant is owned by or otherwise associated with
McDonald's).[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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