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How to Protect Fashion Concepts - Wall Street Journal


How to Protect Fashion Concepts

By KELLY SPORS
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal.

Question: I believe I have the answer to a longstanding problem in men’s dress attire and would like to take the next step in having samples made and industry feedback. Since I have been told that fashion concepts are copied and stolen all the time, will a nondisclosure agreement help? –Bill Vigilanti, Pearl River, N.Y.

Answer: Knockoffs are rampant in the fashion world. Yet fledgling designers often feel scorned if their idea is stolen before anybody associates it with them.

There are some protective measures you can take to make it less appealing for other designers to steal your idea — but they won’t necessarily deter them. And keep in mind, enforcing those legal protections in court can be prohibitively expensive in some cases.

“Nothing will prevent people from ripping you off, it’s just about having enough recourse in case they” do, says Quinn Heraty, an intellectual-property lawyer in New York who specializes in fashion and entertainment.

A good starting point is seeing if your concept is a candidate for patent or copyright protection. But be forewarned: Many fashions aren’t. Utility and design patents are available on “novel” and “nonobvious” design concepts, like a revolutionary type of zipper. A wider collared shirt won’t cut it. Getting patent protection takes one to three years, so it’s usually impractical if you need to rush your design to market and its shelf life is short.

Copyright law also doesn’t cover most fashion designs. Many designers get trademarks to protect a brand, but that won’t stop someone from copying a design.

A nondisclosure agreement - which parties agree not to disclose confidential information - is often a designer’s most practical, albeit not foolproof, legal defense. Get a lawyer experienced in the fashion industry to help write it. Some agreements spell out exact monetary penalties if the signer is found to have breached the agreement, Ms. Heraty says, though you don’t want terms so harsh that nobody would sign it.

In the end, the best way to protect yourself is by being extra cautious about whom you share your idea with. It’s worth talking extensively with other designers and getting referrals in the industry before disclosing your concept to anyone.



posted on Wednesday, February 21st, 2007 at 1:08 pm and is filed under design, fashion, intellectual-property. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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