Do you ever think about how to protect the product packaging? If not, you will learn about product packaging protection using copyrights, design patents, and trade dress.
A crucial aspect of every manufacturer's operation is product packaging. Customers first notice a product's packaging, and the first impression is essential.
Packaging serves as a unique identity for your company and a means of protecting the contents. Everyone knows about Coca-Cola and its unique bottle form. Everybody in the world recognizes it right away.
Protecting packaging as exclusive intellectual property is essential when it is truly one-of-a-kind. Many business owners don't know that rights can protect packaging under patent, trademark, and copyright laws.
Product Packaging Protection using Copyrights, Design Patents, And Trade Dress
Let's understand the protection of product packaging:
Secured Product Look Using Copyrights
Books and musical works are examples of creative expressions that are copyrighted. Despite not being a movie or a piece of art, product packaging might be protected through copyright.
Copyrights are flexible; that's why protecting elements like the packaging's layout, graphics, and two-dimensional text is possible. Furthermore, if the package has distinctive or imaginative three-dimensional components, a copyright registration may be acquired on the packaging itself.
Anything must be permanently fixed in a tangible medium to be legally protected under United States copyright law. Additionally, the protected invention has to be an original piece of authorship. In terms of product packaging, this signifies that the packaging has some unique innovation and wasn't duplicated by anybody or anywhere else.
Secured Product Through Design Patents
A design patent is intended to safeguard the ornamental design of an invention in the United States. To put it in simple words, a design patent protects the appearance of an innovation or product packaging.
Utility patents are more well-known to the public. These types of patents cover an invention's practical or functional elements. As a result, they are frequently focused on tools and methods. Design patents are different since they protect an object's appearance, making them the ideal option for securing a distinctive package design.
Let's rewind time and think about that Coca-Cola bottle. The corporation acquired U.S. Inventive Design No. D48160 in 1915 for their creative design. More recently, Starbucks for coffee cups and lids received U.S. design patents.
How do you decide whether the packaging for your business needs design patent protection?
It's preferable to discuss this with a knowledgeable intellectual property lawyer. You don't have to be concerned about design patent protection using generic cardboard boxes. On the other hand, businesses that create brand-new, cutting-edge packaging undoubtedly look more closely at their available choices.
Secured Product Through Trade dress
Businesses typically select a name, logo, or other distinguishing feature to show the source of certain items. "Coca-Cola" is one example of a trademark, but "trade dress" objects may also receive trademark protection.
Trade dress describes a product's entire image and appearance. This can cover a wide range of package features, including artwork, texture, color schemes, size, and form. In continuation with our Coca-Cola example, the corporation has filed the look of its bottle as U.S. No. 696,147 for trademark registration.
Specific requirements must be met for federal trademark registration for a trade dress. For example, it must be distinctive and cannot be functional.
"Functionality" is a bit of a contradiction regarding trade dress. The Coca-Cola bottle is useful, after all, because it contains liquid. Although, the U.S. In terms of trade dress, the Patent and Trademark Office is seeking something a little different. They assess whether the applied-for-trade dress is necessary for the product's use or purpose and if it may impact the item's cost or quality.
In the case of the Coca-Cola bottle, neither the manufacturing cost nor the beverage's flavor is improved by the container's form. The design is thus not practical.
Additionally, the bottle's shape is noteworthy in that it aids in establishing its origin.
What Distinguishes Product Design from Product Packaging?
Since there isn't exactly a method to legally distinguish between the two. You may refer to the product's packaging as sold in a unique container, such as shampoo. However, the United States Trademark and Patent Office believe the container to be an integral aspect of your product's design.
Conclusion
The above discussion shows you now understand product packaging protection through design patents, copyright, and trade dress. Business owners may create a plan to adequately preserve their intellectual property while facilitating the development of their company by utilizing the available legal tools.
