In luxury fashion, a product can become recognizable not only because of its logo or brand name, but also because of its distinctive shape. From handbags and shoes to perfume bottles and other accessories, a product’s visual design can sometimes receive legal protection against imitation.
Intellectual-property laws in different countries provide several ways for luxury brands to protect distinctive product designs. These can include trademarks, industrial designs, copyrights and, in some cases, patents. The exact protection depends on the product, the jurisdiction and the characteristics being claimed.
One important form of protection is the trademark. While trademarks traditionally cover names and logos, some legal systems allow distinctive product configurations, packaging and other non-traditional marks to qualify when they identify the commercial source of a product.
In the Philippines, for example, the Intellectual Property Office has expanded protection for non-traditional visual trademarks to include three-dimensional marks, color marks, position marks, motion marks and holograms. A distinctive product shape can therefore become part of a brand’s legally protected identity when the applicable requirements are met.
Industrial design protection provides another route. Unlike trademarks, which primarily identify the source of goods, design rights focus on the visual appearance of a product. The World Intellectual Property Organization notes that registered industrial designs can protect aspects such as the shape, configuration and ornamentation of fashion products, accessories and footwear when they meet requirements such as novelty and individual character.
However, having a distinctive appearance does not automatically mean that every similar product is illegal. Trademark protection generally concerns issues such as consumer confusion and the commercial origin of goods, while design and other intellectual-property rights have their own requirements and limitations. Recent legal analysis has highlighted the difficulty of protecting popular product designs when consumers may recognize a look without necessarily believing that a competing product comes from the original brand.
This is particularly significant for luxury fashion, where iconic shapes can become commercially valuable assets. Brands may therefore combine several forms of intellectual-property protection rather than relying on a single legal right.
As imitation and “dupe” culture continue to grow, the legal battle over luxury-product shapes is becoming less about whether something looks similar and more about which specific intellectual-property right protects the design, whether the legal requirements have been met and how consumers perceive the product in the marketplace.
