The fashion world is enticing and provocative, but it’s also extremely challenging for a large part of the creatives that make it work – the designers. As a designer, especially one that’s just starting, it is extremely difficult to protect your work from the multitude of copycat companies that are always watching to catch a fresh idea and turn it into profit.
Even a well-known designer can work hard to create a visionary collection only to have it leaked to the public before they have a chance to present it as theirs. When this happens, the ability to produce copies almost always trumps the genius of the designer, who has now lost the chance to capture their target audience’s attention.
Therefore, all the creative effort and financial resources that went into creating the new collection will most likely be lost since the designer can’t profit from their own work.
But does that mean designers have no means of protection? As it turns out, the fashion industry is still working on this aspect. This is why the creatives of this world must find ingenious methods to keep their creations safe until the big reveal.
Trademarks Have Power
By definition, trademarks protect recognizable insignia, phrases, words, or symbols associated with a brand and its products. Therefore, you can’t use a trademark to protect a new design or a new clothing line.
On the other hand, trademarks can be used to protect the brand associated with a fashion design, such as logos, names, and slogans. This can help prevent others from using similar branding that could create confusion in the marketplace.
Of course, only well-established brands with registered trademarks can benefit from this type of Intellectual Property protection. This is why many young designers associate with big brands until they can make a name for themselves.
Hiring Luxury Moving Services
In the case of big brands, the main danger is having a new collection leaked before it reaches the catwalk. This tends to happen due to mistakes in handling the clothes, like misplacing the boxes or errors in delivery.
To avoid this, big fashion brands either have their own delivery service or hire experienced professionals known for their level of seriosity and capacity to protect the items in transit. If you’re interested in such a service, check out 9Kilo’s offer and services.
You Can Also Use Copyright and Patents
There are other forms of Intellectual Property, besides trademarks, that can help protect your hard-worked designs, such as copyright and patents. However, this is highly dependent on your company’s location.
In most countries, fashion designs can be protected by copyright, which gives the creator exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, and display the design. In addition to copyright, fashion designs can also be protected through design patents, which give the owner exclusive rights to prevent others from making, using, or selling a design for a limited period of time.
However, it is important to note that design patents are often more difficult and expensive to obtain than copyrights.
Fast Fashion Is a Threat
Fast fashion promotes low prices, trendy styles, and designer knockoffs without actually caring about the designer or the customer’s satisfaction. These brands are actually banking on people’s desire for the latest looks at a fraction of the cost.
However, there is a huge ethical problem behind this (still) upward-moving trend since it’s a form of ripping off high fashion designers. Now, whether this is ethical or not it’s still up for debate, but what’s extremely clear is that the brands involved in this make impressive profits. Moreover, they do so by encouraging throw-away culture, which is extremely problematic for the environment.
Wrap Up
While designers (especially beginners) are often the most impacted by these scenarios, the lack of better protection methods negatively impacts everyone involved in the fashion industry, from high-end houses to the consumer.
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