Seyfarth's Intellectual Property Team Files Amici Brief in Supreme Court Trade Dress Case

On October 18, 2021, Seyfarth’s Jamaica Szeliga, Joe Lanser, and Vince Smolczynski submitted an amici brief to the United States Supreme Court to support certiorari in the trade dress matter of Sulzer Mixpac AG v. A&N Trading Co. et al, No. 21-417. At issue is the Second Circuit’s decision in Sulzer Mixpac, finding that any utility of a product necessarily affects the product’s cost or quality and thus renders the product functional and not protectable by trade dress as a matter of law.

Seyfarth's Intellectual Property team submitted the brief  on behalf of the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (IACC), a non-profit advocacy group dedicated to reducing counterfeiting and privacy, Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), a non-profit trade membership organization for industrial designers, and Swissmem, a trade association representing more than one thousand mechanical, electrical, and metal industries in Switzerland.

You can learn more and read the full amici brief here.