Patent protection covers only the strictly functional aspects of a product’s design. Trade Dress protection covers only the distinctive and recognizable, but strictly nonfunctional, appearance aspects of a product’s design (think ‘57 Chevy tail fins). While patent protection is time limited, trade dress protection is not, as long as the product with those specific appearance features remains in production and consumers continue to associate them with the product’s maker. It’s sorta like copyright. This is why unlicensed copies of the Ruger 10/22 differ slightly in appearance from an actual Ruger 10/22. Ruger’s recent modifications to the appearance of their increasingly various 10/22 options have likely weakened their trade dress protection for all but their original 10/22 Carbine model.
That’s probably more than you ever wanted to know about this subject.
The guys over at Ruger are pretty stupid, ...
Misguided, perhaps. But, definitely not stupid.
