Trade Dress v. Design Patent Rights: Clash of the IP Rights

Both trade dress rights and design patents can be used to protect product designs and packaging. But is one a better form of IP protection than the other? Leading practitioners debated the merits of trade dress and design patent rights, including:

• Which IP right works best for different types of products and industries?
  
• When is it worth devoting the time and resources to procure a design patent?
  
• What is the appropriate test for design patent infringement: the “point of novelty” test or “the ordinary observe test”?
  
• Which IP right is more powerful for enforcement and as a remedy in litigation?

Panelists for this session include: Nancy Lee Carter, Senior Counsel- Trademark & Copyright, Kimberly-Clark Corporation; Karen Feisthamel, Senior Legal Counsel – Intellectual Property, CVS Caremark Corporation; Cynthia Franecki, Senior Counsel, IP Litigation Practice; Kamau King, Worldwide Licensing & Retail Operations Counsel, The Coca-Cola Company; Gregory Norrod, Partner, IP Litigation Practice; Daniel Shulman, Chief Intellectual Property Counsel, Assistant General Counsel, Pactiv Corporation.