Season 2, Episode 3: Secondary Meaning, Trade Dress in the Fashion Industry

I’ve mentioned trade dress in a couple of episodes but we’re finally getting a clear definition. Copyrights and even trademarks aren’t easily obtainable when protecting designs or design elements. Designers have found a way around this by using trade dress. Even still, trade dress is still difficult due to the fact you must establish secondary meaning.

And establish secondary meaning, is its own ball game.

In this episode, we define trade dress, go into how its established and discuss a few cases mentioning trade dress in the fashion industry.

Marc Jacobs vs. Ed Hardy bag case mentioned in this episode.