Fashion Designer Research Paper

1393 Words3 Pages

Curtailing Copycat Couture “This New York Fashion Week, models and editors are stylishly dressed but fashion designers are naked. Legally naked, that is” (Scafidi, Rodriguez, NYT). Fashion design is a form of art. Currently there is no set of copyright laws to protect fashion design. Consequently, especially within the past 10 years, fashion designers have struggled to protect their form of art. Americans concerned with the future of the fashion industry started to stand up for the industry and propose acts to protect it, yet none have been successful enough to pass. Based on information from The Council of Fashion Designer Association, most fashion designers would agree, this needs to change. Fashion designers should have fashion design copyright …show more content…

These trademarks and patents do not protect the creative side of their designs enough. To clarify, patents, trademarks, and copyrights are specifically different. Trademarks are distinctive marks, names, and/or logos used to distinguish a product, which enable consumers to identify an item as the designer's work. They can be renewed unlimitedly, but a trademark does not protect the overall design. Trademark law therefore offers relatively little protection against copyists as opposed to counterfeiters. Patents protect functional expressions of an idea – not the idea itself. Copyrights protect the specific creative expression of an idea through any medium of artistic/creative expression …show more content…

The Design Piracy Prohibition Act was introduced to the House in 2009, and stated that copyright protection should be at the digression of fashion designers. It would require applicants submit an application for design registration within six months after the design is made public, and it would protect the design for three years. This act would provide protection for "the appearance as a whole of an article of apparel, including its ornamentation”, and declare that it is not infringement to make or sell any article if they don’t claim protection. In August 2010 Senator Chuck Schumer and ten co-sponsors introduced the Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prevention Act. Then in December 2010 the Senate Committee on the Judiciary voted unanimously for the bill to finally proceed to the Senate floor. Under the IDPPPA, a copy of a design would be infringed if it was found to be "substantially identical" to the original work with little to no changes to set that design apart. A "fashion design", under the IDPPPA, would be defined as an entire article of apparel including its embellishment and also includes elements of the original apparel that are the creative work of the original designer and are unique. Once again Senator Chuck Schumer and ten co-sponsors introduced The Innovative Design

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