Trade Dress Protection: Analysis Of India & US Position

Aleena Placid, LLM, Ramaiah College of Law

INTRODUCTION

In India, there is no specific provision which deals with ‘Trade dress’ under the Indian Trademark Act 1999. The ‘Trade Dress Protection’ is often protected under the common law which includes packaging, colour combination, shape of goods etc. It’s still underdeveloped and in a very nascent stage. The evolution of Trade Dress has played a crucial role in development of the laws pertaining to trade dress. It helps in providing a distinctive characteristic towards the product in the market which helps the consumer in identifying or distinguishing the product in the market. Some of the scope of trade dress protection gives us a more broader aspect than the protection provided by the Trade Mark Law. whereas under the US the Lanham Act protects trade dress. It shows how to serve the same source - identifies the functions of a trademark. Here it is fully available to register trade dress as a trademark. It is intended to protect consumers from packaging or appearance of products that are designed to imitate other products, thereby this will prevent the consumer from buying one product believing that as another. Unlike patents, trade dress has an expiration date, where the rights of trade dress can last indefinitely as long as the owner actively uses the trade dress.