Patent Law

Display Package

By Gary Odom and Jordan Kuhn

Design patents seem like a little brother to utility patents, all form and no substance. But aesthetics spin money. Even the presentation of a product can help it jump off the shelf and make the cash register ring. So Monster Cable, which packs its cables into a tidy product display, understandably complained that Timex has copied its display package to retail kids' watches.

Monster filed against Timex in the Eastern District of Texas for infringing D466,405. From the complaint:

Watches sold by Timex, and particularly watches sold under the "Timex Kids" brand use packaging that is insubstantially different from Monster's own patented packaging.

By selling watches in packages that copy or embody Monster's unique design, Timex Corporation has misappropriated Monster's trade dress and falsely represented the origin of the relevant products, among other things, in violation of Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act.

Monster claims willful infringement.

The suit ends in one word: settlement.

Full post as published by The Patent Prospector on June 13, 2008 (boomark / email).