Essay on Maria Rodriquez Reviving the Fashion Industry with Innovation and Experience

The fashion industry is currently enjoying a surge as people are increasingly becoming more interested in it. This has brought about the creation of new brands that have contributed to increased competition in the market. Many brands are, therefore, looking for new ways to create better products and maintain their customers. Maria Rodriquez has been hired to bring her innovation and experience to this company. They, therefore, need to protect their designs to ensure their designs remain their intellectual property solely. There are a few strategies that the firm can employ in protecting its intellectual property, as discussed below.

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First, the firm can seek copyright on their designs. A copyright is an assignable right that the originator of a certain material is given for several years. It can be used to protect fashion design from being directly copied by other firms (Li, 2012). The copyright only protects against the similar expression of design. This, therefore, means that firms can copy the functionality and idea of design (Li, 2012). The firm can also seek for a design patent which is better than copyright. Design patents protect against the appearance of similar objects in the market. It does not protect against the artistic for or the functionality of the material (Li, 2012). This then pauses a challenge as in the fashion design world; there is a lack of differentiation between the artistic and functionality aspects in the industry (Li, 2012). Many fashion design firms are, therefore, unable to get patents on their designs.

The other way to protect intellectual property in fashion design is to trademark the design. Trade dressing under trademark law offers good protection as the owner of the fashion design must show how their design acquires secondary meaning (Li, 2012). Most fashion design products have a short life span which makes them fall short of this requirement. Moreover, the issue of separability is still present in trademark law (Li, 2012). If I was the owner of this firm, I would choose to protect my intellectual property through the trademark law. I would seek a trade dress for intellectual property. I would first ensure that the fashion design will be unique, thus making people more interested in purchasing the product. This will ensure that I can sell the products for longer periods to meet the secondary meaning.

Conclusion

The fashion industry is becoming popular and is expected to continue growing. Many firms, including startup, want to protect their intellectual property to ensure they have the right to selling their products. Protecting intellectual property in the fashion design domain is a bit challenging as the separability issue makes most design not qualify for protection. Trademark law can offer substantial protection of intellectual property if the fashion design meets the secondary meaning clause.

Reference

Li, X. (2012). IP Protection of Fashion Design: To Be or Not To Be, That is the Question. IP Theory, 3, iii.