Maker’s Mark, a liquor manufacturer, won a seven-year lawsuit last week against Casa Cuervo and Diageo North America. Maker’s Mark creates a bourbon alcohol and uses a decorative red wax on the bottle tops to seal bottles. Maker’s Mark brought suit against Casa Cuervo, a Mexican company, and Diageo, the distributor, who used the similar red wax seal on bottles of their tequila. Maker’s Mark created the trademarked red wax top in 1958 and Cuervo started their wax seal similarly on bottles in 1997. When Maker’s Mark brought the lawsuit in 2003 for violation of the trademark, Cuervo stopped using the wax seal in 2005. Though the recent decision did not award damages to Maker’s Mark, the dripping wax seal is now ruled both a distinctive trademark and exclusive property of Maker’s Mark.

The United States District Court’s Judge John G. Heyburn II stated that “the court considers the red dripping wax seal inherently distinctive, because it is a unique mark used in an unusual way to draw in the consumer.” Based on the hierarchy of distinctiveness of trademark protection, unique marks that are deemed inherently distinctive carry the highest level of brand protection. The fact that the red wax top was ruled to be a unique trademark that is used in an unusual way is significant because Maker’s Mark has created and built up their trademark for over 50 years. The associations of the dripping red wax to consumers is so strong that consumers will identify Maker’s Mark as the source of the liquor whenever they see the red wax top. The Maker’s Mark bottle design of the red wax seal is best defined as trade dress because it involves the distinctive characteristics of the product’s design and packaging, allowing consumers to quickly and easily recognize Maker’s Mark as the source of the goods.

Trade dress protection is important to a company because it allows for trademark association beyond the brand’s product itself. Tiffany has trade dress protection on their famous cyan blue boxes and bags that they package their jewelry, complete with a white ribbon. Trade dress is also exemplified by the shiny gold Gucci bag as well as the chocolate brown Coach bag with the red ribbon. When a consumer sees a person carrying the distinctive blue cyan bag on the street, they associate Tiffany as the source. Thus, Maker’s Mark win to protect the red wax seal is important for fashion houses and purveyors because this case successfully strengthens their trademark and trade dress. This precedent is highly desirable for a company such as Maker’s Mark because it means that their brand is strong enough to be given exclusive rights on a packaging technique.  An interesting result.