Protecting a fashion design or a textile collection

In fashion and textiles, creations circulate fast: showrooms, trade fairs, manufacturers, social media. A copy can appear before the product is even on sale. Several protections exist, and all of them, at some point, come down to a question of date.

Copyright

The French Intellectual Property Code expressly protects creations of the seasonal clothing and accessories industries (article L112-2). An original design, print or pattern is therefore protected from its creation, without any formality.

Designs

Registering a design, with the INPI for France or the EUIPO for the European Union, protects the appearance of a product: shapes, lines, colors, textures, patterns. It requires the creation to be new and to have individual character (an overall visual impression different from earlier designs). It can be renewed in five-year periods, up to twenty-five years.

Without registration, EU law also protects unregistered designs, for three years from their first disclosure to the public within the Union. This protection suits short-lived collections, but it requires you to prove the date and circumstances of that disclosure.

If you plan to register, a twelve-month grace period allows you to do so after disclosing the creation yourself. Your own disclosure therefore does not destroy novelty during that period.

Why date each stage

Whether it is copyright, an unregistered design or a later registration, you will need to show what existed, and when. Date your sketches, mood boards, technical sheets, prototypes and toile photos, as well as each version of a print.

Also date what you send out: the file sent to a workshop or manufacturer, the collection shown in a showroom. If a third party copies it, you will be able to establish that the creation existed on your side first.

For an entire collection, you can deposit an archive grouping the files: a single certificate covers the whole set at a given date.

And with your partners

Before entrusting a collection to a manufacturer or contractor, a confidentiality agreement and a clause on ownership of the creations prevent many disputes. Dated proof complements these contracts: it shows what was handed over, and when.

This article is for general information purposes and does not replace the advice of a legal professional.

To go further: a scenario of a copied collection, with and without dated proof and our offer for creators.