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Fashion design and its legal protection

Every design activity begins with a creative process that finalises the creation of a fashion piece. This process itself is as important as its legal protection. After all, at every turn we encounter copied works by great creators and internal conflicts within the structures of global brands.


 


If a design manifests individual and original features, it can be called a work and is therefore protected by law under copyright. The idea itself, without the creative process, is not protected by law, but its realisation is, e.g. the creation of clothes and accessories, the name of a brand, sketches of a collection or the concept of a show. The most effective protection is to register a trademark, which can be represented by a word, a graphic, a design sketch or even a scent.


Major brands from the premium segment and beyond benefit from such protection by registering the designs of iconic handbag models, clothes, shoes and accessories. Fashion houses such as Chanel, Dior and LV have thousands of proprietary sketches representing the designs of many collections in their trademark portfolio, some going back decades.



Which only underlines how important design protection was and is for the designer and the brand as a whole. The opportunities offered by legal protection of designs are important not only from an artistic perspective but also from a business perspective.



The fashion market has been growing more and more in recent years, and this does not only apply to the positive aspects. We are increasingly seeing so-called 'fakes' and the well-known plagiarism. Registering a trademark is the fastest way to enforce an artist's rights and leaves space for other creators to verify their own work in the relevant EU and international registers. The guarantee of a unique trademark is provided by an expert analysis of the relevant offices and verification of whether the submitted project does not infringe the rights of another creator.



Wiktoria Szewczak

Melon Blanc Studio


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