If your company makes a product, it’s increasingly likely that someone will copy it or produce counterfeit versions.
“I can’t think of any industry that isn’t being affected,” says Timothy L. Skelton, a partner with Ropers Majeski Kohn & Bentley PC. “I bought a $40 bicycle chain that was a counterfeit. It came in a similar-looking package to the chain I normally buy, but when you looked at it closely it was slightly different.”
One client had a medical device copied by another business.
“It was absolutely identical in every way to my client’s product except one letter in the trademark was changed. So it wasn’t actually a counterfeit because it didn’t use my client’s trademark, but it did infringe on the trade dress and product design,” Skelton says.
Smart Business spoke with Skelton about trade dress and how companies can protect themselves from unfair competition.
What is trade dress and how does it differ from trademarks?
Trade dress is the design and appearance of a product together with the elements that comprise its overall image in identifying the product to consumers. Broadly speaking, it’s the product’s look and feel and can include size, shape, color, or combination of colors, texture and graphics. Trade dress can either be the product itself or its packaging.
A trademark is any word, symbol or device indicating the source of a product. For example, the word ‘Coca-Cola’ and the Coca-Cola swoosh are trademarks, but the bottle is trade dress. The shape of the glass bottle is unique and readily identifiable by consumers as being the source of the product.
Do companies have to take specific action to protect trade dress?
No. Trademark and trade dress are protected when used, not when registered. However, both can be registered, which confers certain benefits. If the trade dress is registered, the burden of proof is in the owner’s favor, and the company may be entitled to remedies that wouldn’t otherwise be available.
Where do businesses run into trouble with product infringement?
There is very thin trade dress protection for websites. Web pages look similar — there are only so many ways to arrange them.
But the biggest problem in the last 10 years is not really a legal change; it’s the business landscape changing because of offshore manufacturing. Counterfeiting touches almost every business. One of the most common occurrences is that a company manufacturing your products will just make more without your name. Those items are sold out the back door of the factory.
It used to be that only expensive items like Rolex watches were counterfeited. Nowadays, it’s almost anything. A current client has a case involving curling irons — a sub-$100 product. Most products are now made overseas and, although laws are changing, historically many foreign countries have not respected intellectual property rights. As a result, many overseas companies don’t even realize when they’ve done something wrong.
How can companies fight counterfeiting and trade dress infringement?
Add clauses in supply agreements that prohibit manufacturers from making your product for anyone else. That may or may not provide protection, but it puts the manufacturer on notice that you’re watching.
If copies of your product are entering the U.S., use whatever business intelligence possible to determine their origin. It’s virtually impossible to shut down manufacturing operations overseas, so try to cut it off at the import stage. Write a cease-and-desist letter to the first link you can find. Make sure that the letter invites a dialogue — it’s always preferable to resolve matters without litigation.
Trade shows are a good place to find the source of problems. An attorney friend goes to a show for automotive aftermarket manufacturers every year and is paid to walk around and look for infringing products.
Counterfeits can slip into the supply chain anywhere. Even the most respectable vendors are having problems. Be reasonable — don’t assume people are acting in bad faith — and in a surprising number of cases you can get the problem resolved.
Timothy L. Skelton is a partner at Ropers Majeski Kohn & Bentley PC. Reach him at (213) 312-2055 or [email protected]. Learn more about Timothy L. Skelton.
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