Why is packaging covered by patents instead of trademark or copyright? It's not like a slight alteration to the inserts in a box is unique innovation. I honestly don't understand how patents are the right thing to apply to packaging. What am I missing?
A trademark protects a mark that would cause confusion about the source of a product if it was used by another person/company. That is, it would protect any branding on the package, rather than the design of the package itself.
There is a certain degree of overlap with copyright, but: (1) for copyright to be infringed, the infringing item has to be a copy of the original; and (2) the subject of a design patent must have a certain degree of functionality and not be purely aesthetic (as copyright can be). A design patent can be infringed by a substantially similar design, rather than an exact copy.
Design patents are very different to utility patents. In the examples here, it's purely the ornamental design applied to packaging that's being protected, not the functional aspects of the packaging itself.
Right, thank you. It sounds like it waters down the lay concept of patents, which is "I came up with something truly new and original", and should more like copyright in that it's more about preventing plagiarism.
