Trade dress: how to protect your brand's visual style?

Without you realizing it, your brand may be building a valuable legal asset and leaving it unprotected. The way in which visual elements are organized, colors, formats, product layout, ambiance, packaging identity, display windows and even fragrances can create a unique set that is recognizable to the consumer. In law, this set is called trade dress.

Although often overlooked, trade dress is one of the pillars of market differentiation. In the fashion sector, where aesthetics and visual experience go hand in hand, protecting this visual style becomes a strategic measure to preserve the brand's identity and prevent undue reproduction by competitors.

Although the Brazilian legal system does not have specific legislation on the subject, it is possible to guarantee this protection through the Industrial Property Law, the principles of unfair competition, and provisions of the Consumer Defense Code, as long as the visual set is distinctive and effectively represents the brand's image to the public.

Proper legal action involves steps such as registering graphic elements, organizing evidence of continued use, and characterizing originality. Without this structure, the defense of your visual style may become weaker and less effective in the face of copies or parasitic competition.

Therefore, specialized legal advice from the outset is crucial to transforming this aesthetic construction into real protection, allowing the symbolic value of the brand to be legally recognized and protected.