Poorvi Singh Chaudhary & Udiksha Chhikara, IILM Law School, Gurugram
ABSTRACT
Gianni Versace once said, “Fashion goes with the feeling of the moment. It’s related to movies, to art, to young people’s taste.” Fashion has long been a vehicle for expressing artistic ideas, emotions, and self-expression, with bursts of creativity propelling new trends and styles. Despite modest legal safeguards for its original design, fashion is a major industry and one of the most inventive and developing industries that thrives in a competitive worldwide context. The word “fashion” encompasses a wide range of concepts. Geographically, culturally, and individually, the definition of this term varies. Uniqueness and originality are the key factors in the fashion industry . Intellectual Property (IP) protects the "creation of minds," which includes goods, literary and creative works, photos, and brand names, logos, and design components in the fashion sector. Hence it becomes imperative that creative expression must be safeguarded in the dynamic fashion business. IP provides specific rights and safeguards to the owners and the creators. This helps stimulate an environment that encourages creativity, innovation and protects the economic and creative rights of the person. IP is at the heart of the fashion business. In general, it consists of patents that protect innovative and helpful inventions; copyright which encompassess various forms of artistic demonstration; and trademarks i.e., the names and/or symbols used to identify the brand and differentiate them from those of others. Through this paper, the author(s) explains the various IP’s involved in the fashion industry, the legal discourse under Intellectual Property Laws available to the designers, how the protection can be availed and what are its requirements. To bring forth its point, the author throws light and discusses various national and international judgements.
