Use case
Copied collection: proving your design came first
A collection can be copied in a matter of weeks. Your ability to prove authorship of a print, a cut or a pattern is settled before the runway show.
The situation
One scenario, two outcomes
The same moment, depending on whether the work was timestamped or not.
The trigger
You hand over the patterns and three exclusive prints to a manufacturer you're working with for the first time.
Without proof
The following season, one of the prints turns up at a mass-market retailer. You have the source files. However, their modification date matches your last export. An unregistered EU design is protected for three years from its disclosure (its first presentation to the public), but you still have to be able to prove the creation date.
With a certificate
The boards were timestamped before shipment, in bulk, for the entire collection. The creation date and the disclosure date are both established. The formal notice (a letter formally demanding that the copying stop) goes out the week you discover the copy.
Is your situation different?
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The need
Short cycles, unregistered designs, outsourcing.
Faster than filing
The pace of collections makes systematic registration of every design impractical. Timestamping boards, patterns and prints as the studio produces them takes a few seconds per piece and covers the whole season.
The unregistered design
European law protects an unregistered design for three years from its first disclosure, but you still need to be able to date that disclosure and the creation that preceded it. That's exactly what a certificate establishes.
Studios, freelancers, manufacturers
A collection passes through many hands. Attributing each board to its author at the moment it's produced clarifies ownership (who holds the rights) before any dispute arises. This includes work handled by a subcontractor who might reuse a motif.
→Boards, patterns, prints, prototypes, lookbooks
→Bulk deposit for an entire collection
→Studio and freelancer contributions attributed
→Marseille Judicial Court ruling, March 2025
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