Know About Intellectual Property In The Fashion Industry?

This article will explain how intellectual property in the fashion industry works and how it can help you build your brand. Read on to learn what you need to know about protecting your business’ intellectual property.

Intellectual Property in the Fashion Industry

If you are looking to start a career in the fashion industry, the first lesson you need to learn is that there is much more than garments and apparel at the heart of the business of fashion. In this industry, a company’s ability to build a distinctive brand is everything. It is crucial to have a strong intellectual property protection strategy to build a brand.

Intellectual property represents a significant body of law in nearly every industry because it protects “creations of the mind,” such as inventions, symbols, names and images used in commerce, artistic and literary works, and – yes – elements of fashion designs. However, despite the undeniable importance of intellectual property in the fashion industry, inexperienced business owners commonly misunderstand it. A common mistake among new businesses is to think that they can use intellectual property elements interchangeably when, in reality, they are very distinct.

Here is a brief look at the different forms of intellectual property to give you a better understanding of how they work in the fashion industry:

COPYRIGHT

The most common type of intellectual property protection is copyright, which protects “original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression.” However, to obtain copyright protection, your original works must meet the requisite levels of creativity and originality.

The owner of a copyright has the exclusive right to reproduce, display, distribute, perform, and license the copyrighted work as well as create derivative works based on it, with such rights typically enduring for the owner’s entire life and 70 years after his or her death.

TRADEMARK

Trademarks are an essential form of intellectual property in the fashion industry. A trademark is a word, name, symbol, or design, or any combination thereof, used in commerce to identify the products or services offered by a company.

The purpose of a trademark is to make it easier for consumers to identify the source of a given product or service. For example, instead of asking a store clerk who made a specific pair of shoes and what they can expect in terms of quality, consumers can look for identifying words or symbols such as a swoosh or a 3-stripe pattern. By making products and services easier to identify and enabling them to carry elements of goodwill, trademarks give companies an incentive to invest in the quality of every product they make and all the services they offer.

PATENT

Patents are exclusive rights granted to individuals who are the creators of inventions, which can encompass products or processes that provide, in general, a new way of doing something, or offer new technical solutions to specific problems.

Patents come in the following categories:

• Design patents – based on a product’s decorative and non-functional features. In other words, these patents entail the elements of the invention’s appearance.
• Utility patents – are those patents given to inventors of new and useful processes, machines, or compositions of matter, or new and useful improvements thereof.
• Plant patents – given to new and distinct asexually reproduced plants (both invented and discovered), including cultivated sports, hybrids, mutants, and newly found seedlings.

Patents give inventors the right to exclude others from making, using, or selling their patented inventions throughout the United States, as well as the right to prevent others from importing their inventions into the country.

Jurado & Farshchian’s Intellectual Property Lawyers can help you build your brand. Call us today at (305) 921-0440 or send us an email to [email protected] to schedule an initial consultation with one of our IP experts.