Luxury Brands Continue To Apply For Patents To Resist The Rampant Plagiarism Of Fast Fashion Brands.

Disrupt fashion week's schedule and will Men's wear It has become a fashion trend to incorporate shows into women's wear show, but there is another more worthy of discussion. fashion Trend: Luxury goods The brand began to apply for design patents to resist the rampant plagiarism of fast fashion brands and light luxury brands. In the past few months, Yves Saint Laurent has received 8 design patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and Louis Vuitton has also added 6 design patents, and Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga have received 3 and 2 design patents respectively.

This is not a brand new strategy, because luxury brands have been using design patent protection for decades. But in recent years, more and more brands are beginning to imitate and rely heavily on this form of protection. The conditions for designing patents extend to new, original and decorative designs. In short, the design patent becomes a kind of functional product's appearance protection, such as the appearance of wallets and shoes. Because trademark law and copyright law do not include costumes in the protection area, because in the United States, it is not illegal to plagiarize designs that have not been granted design patents. Based on this consideration, luxury brands are beginning to rely on this new form of protection to prevent others from making, using and selling similar products that can confuse consumers. The design patent protection is usually valid for 14 to 15 years, and the length of validity depends on the constituency of the date of application.

Unlike trademark protection and copyright protection, patent protection also has disadvantages, namely, cost and turnover time. Compared with trademark protection and copyright protection, the cost of patent protection is high, because the registration cost of the former two is less than $500, and according to the latest report, the cost of patent protection exceeds 10 thousand US dollars. Turnover time, that is, the time interval between submission and application, takes 18 months. Although a year and a half is not very long, it is very long for the fashion industry that is upgrading rapidly. Due to the seasonal and cyclical nature of the fashion industry, the design products are usually available and have not yet been examined and approved by the design patent, and the replica has begun to circulate in the market.

Therefore, luxury brands will mainly apply for such patent protection for the main projects of the company, and the cost of each patent will be controlled within thousands of dollars. Although the use frequency of design patents in fashion industry is less than trademark protection and copyright protection, many brands will apply for design patent protection for single products, such as Bottega Veneta and Louis Vuitton. These brands will not only spend money on patent protection, but also apply for design patents for classic and popular products. This will help brand products become valuable investments rather than consumer goods. This is different from the products displayed by the fashion show. The products on the fashion show are seasonal, and the products that are insured are out of season.

Although there is no public information available to count the number of design patents in fashion industry, it is certain that since 1960, design patent applications have been increasing. In the past few years, the number of applications for design patents has increased by at least 1400 per year, especially from 2014 to 2015, with 3719 applications for design patents.