protecting package design look and feel

Executive summary -
Consumers can only remember general impression of a packaging
General impression includes color scheme and prominent words - product name or descriptor
Lookalikes are usually free to take color schemes and descriptors
Making descriptor words more prominent makes it easier for lookalikes to steal the same look and feel with only immaterial modification.
The protected name should always be given greater prominent than  descriptor words such as the word GOLD in this earlier blog post.


Look and feel of a packaging relies on consumer memory in associating the packaging to the familiarity developed over time.  But such familiarity or recollection is not perfect - in that only the most dominant aspects get registered in the consumer memory.    Hence the term look and feel which connotes a fuzzy mental image that is registered with the customer.  Features that form part of this image includes the overall color scheme and any prominent word and/or design feature. Such features are what competitors go for creating as close a lookalike as possibly.can without infringing any rights.  


It is natural not to expect complete recollection of the packaging features in a supermarket environment or due to the product mature. 

This factor is therefore crucial in product/packaging design.

 Such association are usually  imprecise - so it could be deep blue packaging for Oreo cookies.  

But Oreo manage this risk rather well by -
-  making OREO word the most prominent element; and 
-  not having superfluous phrase such as "COOKIE AND CREAM" 

I sometimes wonder which came first OREO or COOKIE AND CREAM.

It would have been ideal if Kraft had secured trade mark registration for the color blue as applied to packaging.  But this is usually difficult to get and for good reasons - not to unduly restrict the industry on  design choices.

Why is it important to keep the packaging clean?

A lookalike has to take as many unprotected design elements as possible to achieve resemblance to the original Oreo. And if these prominent packaging elements cannot be protected, it makes it easier to create a lookalike.   Hence it is important to consider if the unprotected design elements can be dropped.

Steve Jobs had good reasons for his strict discipline of simplicity in design.   But he is looking at this from the elegant angle.