Trade dress particularly includes packaging and product designs or product configurations. For example, the shape of the classic Coke bottle is protectable trade dress. The distinctive appearance of a Coke can, is also trade dress. The design and appearance of an unusual high-end garden cart has been protected by an injunction against copying. A box or a bottle or other containers have been protected.
Trade dress extends to the design of an Internet web site.
Trade dress law protects against copying of trade dress, such as a knock-off of a competitor s product. To be protected, the trade dress must be distinctive, either as originally made, or it must have become distinctive in the market over a period of time. It also cannot be functional, which itself is another legal can of worms that implicates patent law in various ways. Thus, almost all product designs serve a functional purpose, but that does not mean they are functional under the specialized meaning of that term in trade dress law. Basically, functionality in trade dress law means that competitors must be able to use the same design in order to effectively compete, and could not do so using an alternative design.