The Piracy Paradox: Intro

In the next couple of posts I will be reading through and commenting on the The Piracy Paradox: Innovation and Intellectual Property in Fashion Design by Kal Raustiala and Christopher Sprigman.

This commentary will probably be broken down in 4 sections: The Basics of the Fashion Industry, Copying in the Fashion Industry, Fashion’s IP threshold,  and The Relationship of Copyright in Fashion to other Industries.

Stay tuned.

Bennuiki: Registering a Trademark

Bennuiki = A Bennu Wiki. Ha! I’m a clever duck.

First let’s get some minor matters out of the way.

What is a trademark? What about a service mark?

• A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others.
• A service mark is the same as a trademark, except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. Throughout this booklet, the terms “trademark” and “mark” refer to both trademarks and service marks.

Copyright Laws on Clothing

House Bill [H.R.2033.IH], and Senate Bill [S.1957.IS] both titled “Design Piracy Prohibition Act” and introduced April 25, 2007 and August 2, 2007 respectively are taking aim at fashion counterfeiters.

The introduced legislation now provides protection for a garments entire design, and is not limited to certain creative aspects such as a logo or fabric pattern. The proposed legislation eliminates the old penalties of $50,000 or $1 per copy, and imposes harsher penalties of $250,000 or $5 per copy (whichever penalty is higher).  The legislation also provides 3 years of legal protection.

Consequences of Knockoffs?

Note: The content of this blog will span various topics comprising copyright, fashion, and design. Hopefully, something here will catch your eye.

Note #2: This article is old! But I had to start practicing on my blogging skills somewhere.

In this day and age everyone wants the latest look but doesn’t want to pay the latest price to get it. Enter the knockoff. The New York Times reports that the American apparel knockoff industry is at least a 9 billion dollar business. Wowza!

First Blog Post

So it’s Thursday August 7th and this is my first blog entry ever. Pretty short and sweet huh? Ha! Better late than never.