Washington Seeks To Sink Fashion Pirates

By Lindsay Sammon

Fashion Wire Daily – April 10, 2006 – New York – We’ve all done it. Whether we made a purchase or not, we’ve all at least thought about putting our wallets above our conscience and investing in a good, quality, knockoff.

It seems harmless, but according to the United States Customs and Border Protection, American businesses lose between $200-$250 billion a year in valid sales due to the production of counterfeited merchandise. Though most nations protect fashion designs under property protection laws, the United States currently does not award copyrights to apparel because the bestower of patents – who clearly missed McQueen’s fall 2006 giant gauze-wrapped deer antler headdress – deems clothing “useful articles,” not works of art.

While logos and names can be trademarked and protected – earlier this month Seven For All Mankind was awarded $4 million in damages from trademark-counterfeiting suit – specific designs are unprotected. Looking to amend the status quo is Congressman Bob Goodlatte from Virginia, who has recently approached the House Committee on the Judiciary with the Design Piracy Prohibition Act. The proposal moves to amend the Copyright Act to provide legal protection for fashion designs for a period of three years.

This anti-piracy act has support from the Council of Fashion Designers of America among other industry big shots, but some insiders consider it unrealistic. And with the intangibility that is inherent in a clothing design, figuring out the specifics could result in years of deliberation before the act passes.

“I think the probability of this getting passed is less than 50%,” said Steve Pruitt, Senior Consultant for Blacks Retail Analysis, a service for trend forecasting, market research and retail information in the fine jewelry and apparel markets. “This is a hard set of rules to establish. It’s not like software or a book, or a piece of music with distinct characteristics. Where are the lines going to be drawn?”

Pruitt, who has been involved in the industry for over 30 years, sees the act has addressing a justifiable concern, but an idea that is “frivolous” at best.

It is easy to trademark a fabric or name of a collection, but when it comes to the length of a sleeve, or the silhouette of a dress, there are more gray areas. To truly make this legit, legislation will have to cover garments down to the inch.

“As soon as you establish those laws,” said Pruitt, “you establish a criteria that says ‘you can’t do anything aside from this.’”

Yet through his experience with the fine jewelry industry as well, which does protect designs, Pruitt has seen the ways in which counterfeiters can find loopholes – add a little, take away a little – to make the design “different.” Even if the act does pass, Pruitt doesn’t see an end to the counterfeit craze.

“Often times, the thing being counterfeited is made by the same manufacturer,” said Pruitt. “Those operations will still go on, you can’t stop that.”