[E-trademarks] looking for a trade dress case citation

[mrichter richtertrademarks.com]

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(sorry – I couldn’t resist 😊)

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Miriam

Miriam Richter, Attorney at Law, P.L.
Make Your Mark! ®
Trademark, Copyright, and other Intellectual Property Matters
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From: E-trademarks <e-trademarks-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> On Behalf Of Carl Oppedahl via E-trademarks
Sent: Tuesday, July 2, 2024 3:05 PM
To: for trademark practitioners <e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com>
Cc: Carl Oppedahl <carl at oppedahl.com>
Subject: [E-trademarks] looking for a trade dress case citation


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 Looking for any case(s) (TTAB, District Court or Appellate Court) that held, in a trade dress case either that:
        1) an element that replicates a conventional functional element of an item is per se deemed functional and/or cannot be source-identifying;
                    OR
        2) an element that only merely replicates a conventional functional element of an item istherefore not functional and/or can be source-identifying.

    For example, consider a computer PC keyboard that is itself functional EXCEPT that what would be the F1 through F12 keys at the top are actually permanent, molded, non-working, non-moveable replicas.  Can those fake F1 through F12 keys serve as the non-functional source-identifying trade dress aspect or is that precluded because they are a mere replica of functional items that look like, and are placed, where one would expect the functional items to be (and, hence, can't be source identifying)?

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