Study On Legal Protection System Of Trade Dress

Trade dress generally refers to an overall image of goods and services, consisting of size, writing, color, design, packing of the goods and even sales techniques, and so on. Trade dress which is the creative work of producers and service providers, is considered as a part of intangible assets. The protection system of trade dress has been established in the United States of America, Britain, Japan, Australia and some other countries. And in our country, the protection system of trade dress is incorporated into Trademark Law, Patent Law, Copyright Law and others for study, and is protected by Anti-unfair Competition Law when other laws lose their protective actions. On one hand, the disadvantages of protective actions of each law could be compensated by this method, but bring about cross-protection or missing protection on the other hand. Domestic academic circle's researches on legal protection of trade dress mainly focus on the necessity of amending brand commodity terms of Anti-unfair Competition Law, broadening protective range of trade dress and which protective model should be taken.The article begin with legal protection of trade dress is investigated systematically by comparing overseas and native status quo of trade dress legislation, putting out author's own views on this lesson, providing references and inspiration for legislation and juridical practice. Then the next part of the article gives a summary of trade dress, by comparing the relation of trade dress and other objects of intellectual property right, based on common questions in this field. This part set the stage for the following discussion and then analyzes the nature and importance of legal protection of trade dress in theory. This part states the necessity of studying legal protection of trade dress, from labour value, financial incentive, showing goodwill and justice free competition, offering theory support for next chapter.The article introduces uniqueness of foreign legal protection of trade dress and analyzes study situation of trade dress in Anglo-American law system, continental legal system and related international organization, from the standpoints of protective range and protective model. This part could supply references to study legal protection of trade dress for us. The similarities and differences of trade dress with other laws are investigated in the third part, referring to active Trademark Law, Patent Law, Copyright Law and other laws in our country. In this part, disputes in legal protection of trade dress are sorted out and answered.The article's last part advances how to put legal protection of trade dress into practice in our country. This part has not only answered the controversial problems, but also raised the viewpoints and concreteness on how to establish legal protection of trade dress. We should keep to the principle of protecting benefits for source identification and take the fact or possibility of confusion as judgement standards for legal protection of trade dress, but not including aesthetic function and technology function.