Interior design as trade dress —

Apple granted trademark protections for the interior of the Apple Store

It probably won't help against competitors that use similar designs, though.

Apple's trademarked Apple Store design.
Enlarge / Apple's trademarked Apple Store design.
USPTO

Apple has successfully secured a trademark for the design of its retail stores. Trademark protection was applied for in 2010 and granted last week according to documents filed at the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Apple's stores are meticulously designed down to the last detail, including special architectural glass panels (patent pending), floating glass staircases (patented), stainless steel exteriors, and even the lightly colored birch tables on which the arrays of demo iPads and MacBook Pros sit, waiting to be poked and prodded by customers.

Apple has gone to great lengths to protect the designs of its iPhones, iPads, and other products, so it's little surprise that the company wants to extend that protection to the interior design of the Apple Store.

Last year the Chinese government shut down a fake Apple Store in China that seemed so real even the employees thought they were working for Apple.

As noted by Reuters, there is precedent for protecting unique interior designs of retail establishments. The Supreme Court granted similar protection to a chain of Mexican restaurants in 1992.

How the trademark might affect Apple competitors like Microsoft and Samsung, which have generously borrowed ideas from Apple's Store designs, is unclear. Suing a competitor for infringing on an entire store's trade dress would probably be of dubious value to Apple, according to Ars' Tech Policy Editor Joe Mullin. The true test of a possible infringement claim is whether or not customers were duped into thinking they were in a real Apple Store, and the prominent non-Apple logos would probably suffice to survive such a claim.

This Samsung store that opened in Australia last year bears a striking resemblance to Apple's store designs.
Enlarge / This Samsung store that opened in Australia last year bears a striking resemblance to Apple's store designs.

Though the trademark only gives Apple trade dress protection in the US, securing the trademark could be useful in garnering similar protection in other countries in order to help stop the kind of fake stores that popped up in China.

Channel Ars Technica