After several intense days of intellectual property, FINALLY (!!) legal concepts that are more familiar to me. Licenses. Contracts. Commercial Paper. While I have a lifetime of learning yet to come to understand these principles in a fashion business setting, the reading assignments are more comfortable and I'm following class lectures more easily.
To divert for a moment, I should define fashion. Industry parlance categorizes "fashion" in tiers. Top tier being luxury high-end products or "designer" names or brands; followed by "bridge;" then, "contemporary or ready-to-wear;" then "budget" or "fast fashion." Within each of these tiers, there can be sub-categories. A high-end designer may have "diffusion" lines so that the brand appears in multiple tiers including couture, upper and mid-level contemporary, for instance. A good example is Michael Kors. There are multiple lines, each in a different price point: Michael Kors Collection (designer); MICHAEL by Michael Kors; KORS by Michael Kors (upper contemporary); and MK (mid-level contemporary).
There is "fashion" and "fast fashion." Fast fashion manufacturers and retailers 'borrow' looks from designers (usually high profile, popular looks), price garments low, and sell them. Often by the time a cease-and-desist letter can go out, the lookalikes
are already sold out in stores and on-line. Fast fashion retailers include Forever
21, Topshop, and H&M. Confession (semi-hanging head in shame): before Forever 21 opened its retail store in Raleigh, I shopped there online. Regularly, folks would say in surprise things like, "you're wearing Marc Jacobs." I would smile and admit nothing. (I have since moved on & my new obsession is Zara.) Judging from the number of lawsuits Forever 21 defends, they must have made a business decision to include infringement defense litigation into their business model. (With an approximate value of 2-3 billion and over 400 stores globally, they have deep pockets for defense funds and payouts.) To
illustrate ------------------------------------------------------------>
The look on the left is from Anna Sui who put the distinctive textile in her runway show. The dress pictured on the right is Forever 21's. Anna Sui had the foresight to copyright her fabric design and she sued Forever 21. Forever 21 settled. I do not know the settlement terms but my guess is that the result included a payment for damages and a confidentiality agreement. I would expect that Forever 21 did not admit any liability for copycatting.
Some might consider Forever 21's "imitation" as stealing. In the picture above, I would be in that camp. I have learned that there is very little intellectual property legal protection for fashion designers in the US. This allows "fast fashion" to thrive. Other artists are protected by copyright and patents. A songwriter is protected by copyright law. So is a painter and an author. A fashion designer who creates a garment or a look is not usually protected by copyright or patent law. There has been legislation proposed in the US Senate by Charles Schumer but it has never gotten any traction so protections for fashion designers languish and fast fashion copycatters thrive.
To divert for a moment, I should define fashion. Industry parlance categorizes "fashion" in tiers. Top tier being luxury high-end products or "designer" names or brands; followed by "bridge;" then, "contemporary or ready-to-wear;" then "budget" or "fast fashion." Within each of these tiers, there can be sub-categories. A high-end designer may have "diffusion" lines so that the brand appears in multiple tiers including couture, upper and mid-level contemporary, for instance. A good example is Michael Kors. There are multiple lines, each in a different price point: Michael Kors Collection (designer); MICHAEL by Michael Kors; KORS by Michael Kors (upper contemporary); and MK (mid-level contemporary).
There is "fashion" and "fast fashion." Fast fashion manufacturers and retailers 'borrow' looks from designers (usually high profile, popular looks), price garments low, and sell them. Often by the time a cease-and-desist letter can go out, the lookalikes
are already sold out in stores and on-line. Fast fashion retailers include Forever
21, Topshop, and H&M. Confession (semi-hanging head in shame): before Forever 21 opened its retail store in Raleigh, I shopped there online. Regularly, folks would say in surprise things like, "you're wearing Marc Jacobs." I would smile and admit nothing. (I have since moved on & my new obsession is Zara.) Judging from the number of lawsuits Forever 21 defends, they must have made a business decision to include infringement defense litigation into their business model. (With an approximate value of 2-3 billion and over 400 stores globally, they have deep pockets for defense funds and payouts.) To
illustrate ------------------------------------------------------------>
The look on the left is from Anna Sui who put the distinctive textile in her runway show. The dress pictured on the right is Forever 21's. Anna Sui had the foresight to copyright her fabric design and she sued Forever 21. Forever 21 settled. I do not know the settlement terms but my guess is that the result included a payment for damages and a confidentiality agreement. I would expect that Forever 21 did not admit any liability for copycatting.
Some might consider Forever 21's "imitation" as stealing. In the picture above, I would be in that camp. I have learned that there is very little intellectual property legal protection for fashion designers in the US. This allows "fast fashion" to thrive. Other artists are protected by copyright and patents. A songwriter is protected by copyright law. So is a painter and an author. A fashion designer who creates a garment or a look is not usually protected by copyright or patent law. There has been legislation proposed in the US Senate by Charles Schumer but it has never gotten any traction so protections for fashion designers languish and fast fashion copycatters thrive.