What Is Trade Dress

Trade dress is the commercial look and feel of a product or service that identifies and distinguishes the source of the product or service.

What is trade dress. Trade dress includes the size shape and color of the product and its packaging. Trade dress is the characteristics of the visual appearance of a product or its packaging or even the design of a building that signify the source of the product to consumers. Trade dress is generally defined as the total image of a product.

Trade dress refers to anything that is designed or used to promote a product or service. For a product trade dress may be the packaging the attendant displays and even the configuration of the product itself. Trade dress is a form of intellectual property.

Where it can be demonstrated that confusion has resulted from one party s adoption of another s trade dress legal liability may be imposed. This is known as the total image or overall appearance of the product or service. For a service it may be the decor or environment in which a service is provided for example the distinctive decor of the hard rock cafe restaurant chain.

It includes the various elements such as the design and shape of materials used to package a product or services. When a customer walks into a store and sees shelves of nearly identical products trade dress is what distinguishes one product from another.