Legal Research On Trade Dress Legislation

From the opposite points of view on whether the disputed trade dress should be protected, held by the two sides, lawyers from General Motors Corp. and administrative legal enforcement officials in China, in General Motors Corp. v. Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. Anhui in 2004, this dispute induces the legislative analysis on trade dress protection in China and the comparison between advanced legislature on trade dress in foreign countries and that in China. Though Trademark Law, Patent Law, Copyright Law and Anti-Unfair Competition Law have given some protection to trade dress in various ways, it is still far to meet the requirement. We'd better learn from the active factors in the trade dress protection systems in foreign countries, make good use of the current legal framework and modify relative laws and regulations, so as to establish the fundamental model and legal system on trade dress protection.In the first chapter, it intends to analyze the necessity of establishing trade dress protection system. Judging from different understandings on trade dress from WIPO, America, Black's Law Dictionary and professionals, this essay defines trade dress and comparatively analyzes trade dress with its similar concepts. Then it separately points out legal limitations in Trademark Law, Patent Law, Copyright Law and Anti-Unfair Competition Law to show the necessity of establishing trade dress protection system in China. In the second chapter, it mainly analyzes trade dress classification and its protection standards. It evaluates each classification and mainly discusses Tertium Quid, which is between Product Packaging and Product Design. In trade dress protection standards, distinctiveness and non-function, it analyzes their legal values and explain how to make use of them in legal practice from some famous trade dress cases. It also researches on confusion standard used when judging infringement. At last, it introduces some legal problems in using dilution principle to protect famous products or services' trade dresses. In the third chapter, while affirming the current legal protection on trade dress given by Trademark Law, Patent Law, Copyright Law and Anti-Unfair Competition Law in China, this essay gives suggestions on Chinese legislation on trade dress, as so to enlarge its protection scope and define its protection standard on the current laws and regulations.