Fashion Trends and Copyright

H.R 5055 may never be voted into law, but it spurs a much-needed debate about the need to protect fashion by copyright.

Last month, the WSJ quoted law professors Kal Raustiala and Christopher Sprigman: "If copying were illegal, the fashion cycle would occur very slowly, if at all." (article on the SSRN site here). Congressman Goodlatte, who introduced H.R. 5055, notes in a statement that "the production life cycle for a fashion design is very short", and thus a designer may not have every opportunity to cash in on on particularly good idea.

Would this bill slow the fashion cycle, and would slowing the fashion cycle make it more profitable for designers, especially young designers?

Trends would not be protected by H.R. 5055. Representative Goodlatte made it clear during last July legislative hearing, and rightfully so, as trends are mere ideas, too elusive to be protected. One could protect the inspiration book of a designer, the mix of pictures, swatches, art and so on that may have inspired a collection (Christian Lacroix published Journal d'une Collection in 1996, written with Patrick Mauriès), but the idea behind the collection. If you ever watched a designer being interviewed after presenting a collection, or attended a collection, you know that designers love to share their sources of inspiration (Swinging Sixties Fairies, NASCAR...) for the particular collection (click on trends for an example)