Last Friday, we attended an INTA roundtable on Trademark Law in the Fashion Industry at Arent Fox in Washington D.C. It was a great discussion, and we want to send a special thanks to INTA for organizing and Arent Fox for hosting. As our team engages in more work in the fashion industry, we aim to keep our clients up-to-date with the latest trends in fashion law.
From this roundtable discussion, we gathered three takeaways that we wanted to share.
First, for fashion companies, the company name and logo are the most valuable assets, so fashion companies should federally register their name and logo to ensure nationwide protection and exclusivity. Since U.S. law does not currently afford much protection for fashion designs, designers can at least utilize trademark law to protect two aspects– its company name and logo.
Second, major fashion brand companies, such as Chanel and Louis Vuitton, are moving into different (and arguably unforeseeable) markets. For example, Chanel now sells guitars and Louis Vuitton sells chopsticks under its trademarks. With these companies expanding into these, at one point, unforeseeable and far-fetched markets, claims of trademark infringement are even more foreseeable.
Third, fashion is cyclical, which means it is constantly evolving and revisiting past innovations, so it is unclear whether proposed legislation, such as the Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prevention Act, will encourage or stifle fashion innovation.