The availability of overlapping protection disrupts the copyright, patent and design protection and makes it difficult, if not impossible; to determine whether the incentive structure created by legislature is appropriate.
Designers invest a large amount of time and money in producing innovative designs which are copied by other manufacturers. If principles of justice and fairness are applied, then designers should be protected and compensated by law in case of infringements. The designers initially depended on the copyright law to combat piracy that was prevalent in the fashion industry. However there is a limitation under this law as a designer’s overall concept cannot be protected. The copyright law only protects those elements of a design, which can be separated from the utilitarian aspect of clothing. Fashion designers require a high level of creativity, so much so that they can be equated to artists and require protection against infringements just like an artist.
This protection the designers seek can be found in the common law doctrine of trade dress, which is a hybrid of trademark and unfair competition law. Since gaining copyright protection over a certain design gives the designer a monopoly over that design. The Lanham trademark Protection Act ( Lanham Act) provides for trade dress under section 43(a) An important case is that of Walmart stores v Samara Brothers(2000), where the trade dress of Samara Brothers Inc. consisted of a line of spring/summer one piece
Part Three of Pietra Rivolli’s book, titled “Trouble at the Border”, focuses on the hurdles the T-shirt faces during its return to America during a time when concerns about the adverse effects of free trade are rising. She points out that the American public remains uneasy about trade not because the people are unaware of its benefits but because they tend to view matters with a local rather than a global perspective. Subsequently, she refers to the textile and apparel industry as the most protected manufacturing industry in the US, often shielded by complicated rules made by politically driven policymakers.
MGT 120: BUSINESS LAW I
SMALLER WRITING ASSIGNMENT
PART ONE: CASE ANALYSIS
Statement of facts:
Sullivan sold T-shirts with the name Boston Marathon and the year imprinted on them. The Boston Athletic Association (BAA) sponsors and administers the Boston Marathon since 1917.
Second Assignment – Annotated Bibliography and Thesis Statement
by Cheryl Chi Yue Leung (214185045)
York University
NATS 1840
15th January 2016
Thesis: How material elements of the modern fast fashion practice reinforce the meanings of unethical production, and thus explain low prices come with low product quality and negative environmental and social impacts
Annotated Bibliography
1) Anguelov, N. CRC Press. (September 2015) The dirty side of the garment Industry: fast fashion and its negative impact on environment and society.
We are the land of the free, therefore we do not have restrictions or rules like sumptuary rules that we should have to abide by. We are free to wear what we want. As I was doing research on the reasons of why these rules or laws were put into play, According to Elizabethan.org, I found that it was a way to be able to distinguish
Clothing styles have been constantly changing as time goes one. A major factor for this has been the process at which these clothes have been made. Just like the style of our clothing, the creation process for garments has been constantly been evolving. From the handmade past, to the mass produced future, clothing itself has been altered by the means of its creation.
Before the Industrial Revolution, the creation of clothing was a time consuming and expensive process.
Many things became immediate priorities during these shortages, such as food and financial support. As one can imagine, fashion wasn’t at the top of everyone’s list of priorities. With cloth, silk, and cotton being rationed, the fashion side of the United States was put on the back burner. An article written about the war’s impact on fashion states that: “The greatest impact on American fashion in the early 1940s came from the U.S. government, which enacted rationing measures that blocked innovation during the war. In March 1942, the United States Government War Production Board issued regulations for all aspects of clothing, including the use of natural fibers.
But then it occurred to be that as my memory is coming back to me was that it was illegal to have the suit manufacture. Sarah Elizabeth Howard writes, “Owning a zoot suit in wartime was not a crime, but it was a crime to manufacture the suit. The War Production Board placed a $10,000 fine on tailors who ignored the restrictions on cloth and material to make them” (Howard 114). In this society wanting to make something unique causes problems, but that doesn’t give them the right to punish us for what we thought wasn’t as harmful at that
The fabrics were imported from India and manufactured in the north of England which contributed to the expanding British textile trade. (White, M) However, the new fabrics were quickly available for the lower ranks of society and allowed ordinary men and women to copy their superiors. This led to what Lemire describes as democratization of fashion in Fashion’s Favourite. The influence of the new consumerist culture was therefore reflected in the new desire for fashion to appeal aesthetically as opposed to the mere usefulness of clothing.
Due to their huge success, control over suppliers can be always be maintained by the company. Rivalry among the competitors is the force to reckon with and it is the one that will decide the future profitability of the fashion industry. Competition in fashion is very high since there are only a handful of competitors when looking at the giants.
Future Industry evolution
Scenario 1
The future of today’s world is technology.
Agbolabori 1
As consumers, people place items into their shopping carts to help satisfy their needs. Each choice of purchase is based on the products utility value and also the personal symbolic meaning towards that item. There is also an unstated notion of one’s self within a consumer shopping cart and fashion. These unstated notions help define and construct a person’s identity within society by showing their interests, gender, and social class.
Consequently, the owner has limited legal powers towards the third party. Only in a situation where the third party knew or should have known that the contract in question is violated, the inventor may have remedies towards the third person, but this is merely an exception than a general rule.
Efficient trade secret laws could actually lead to greater knowledge diffusion. The optimal law protecting trade secrets, should result in the allocation of the information to more people, which could lead to more innovation and an increase in human capital, by minimizing the risk of distribution to competitors.
My reasons for wanting to study design at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts is due to wanting to challenge myself when it came to creativity. Creativity came to me naturally, as I was a kid that had an enormous imagination. Enrolling in this masters program will allow me to unleash this creativity, and take initiative into stepping in the fashion industry. An integral characteristic of fashion is to know all aspects of fashion rather than just one. Therefore, a masters program like this will integrate all ingredients of the fashion world to prepare me to establish my own brand.
In the times of modern design, art and design has already become a part of our life and plays important roles in our society. Design not only decorates our society and living places, but also brings us a well-rounded life and makes our life become more colourful. Design is a great benefit that would not cause any negative issues to our society. So can you imagine how boring and dull will be if does not exist any art and design in our daily life? Can you imagine how our life will be in the future?
