Using Trademarks To Expand Copyrights
Today's NYT reported on 10/28/04 (here) that:
In a decision that could reduce the availability of replicas of classic modern furniture, the United States Patent and Trademark Office last week granted trademark protection to the furniture company Knoll for four famous designs in Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona collection — the chair and a stool, couch and table — as well as his flat-bar Brno chair.
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Knoll, which makes 18 Mies reproductions, has held a trademark on the Barcelona name since 1968. (Knoll reproductions have Mies's signature stamped into the frame.) The new registration extends trademark protection to the actual design of the five products. Mr. Bright said the company filed for protection to stem inexpensive knockoffs. Trademark protection, Mr. Bright added, will help maintain the authenticity of the original 1929 design. He declined to provide sales figures for the Barcelona series but said it is a "perennial favorite." The decision could curb sales of copycat versions by retailers like Design Within Reach, whose customers appreciate the period's design masters but do not want to pay for authentic reproductions.
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To win a judgment, Knoll's lawyers would have to convince a jury that there is a "likelihood of confusion" in the mind of the consumer, Mr. Walsh said. And to the undiscerning eye, often the cheap reproductions are quite similar to the originals, varying only in small changes of width or height, or the thickness of the frame. (For its Barcelona chair Knoll uses hand-welted leather panels, while C.I.T.E.'s replicas are machine-stitched.)
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Copyrights last a long time, but trademarks potentially last forever. Both forms of "protection" are limited by (and do not extend to) the functional attributes of furniture. It will be interesting to see how courts handle cases alleging infringement of both copyright and trademark protections in furniture design.
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