Assignment code: 9439 Word limit: 2500 Date of Allotment: 19-05-12 Date of completion: 21-05-12

Importance of Intellectual Property Rights in Fashion Industry

Research Topic The topic selected for the research is Importance of intellectual property rights in fashion industry. This particular research has been undertaken to study the relation between IPR and the fashion industry around the world. This study would assist the upcoming talents of the fashion industry to know more about the industry and what is IPR, what are the benefits of getting a design protected and what does copyright means in fashion industry. Introduction IPR are the rights allocated to creators and owners of works. Intellectual property rights in broad terms means the legal rights which result from intellectual activity in scientific, industrial literary and artistic fields. These laws to protect intellectual property are formulated for two reasons. One is to give judicial or legal expression to the moral and economic rights of creators in their creations and the second is to distinguish the original designs from the fake ones. By implementing strong IP rights there would be less chance of financial loss for the original brands. One of the leading advantages by implementing these rights would be the consumers will get stronger confidence on the original brands. WTO defines IPR as the rights given to a person over the creation of their minds. They usually give the creator an exclusive right over the use of his\her creation for certain period of time. In a world where the creative works has not enjoyed the same protection. The law body does not see a need to protect the designs because they are considered useful articles.

Research Aim and Objective The study is undertaken with an aim to identify the importance of intellectual property rights in fashion industry that would be attained with the help of subsequent objectives: To analyze the usefulness of IP rights in fashion industry. To identify the various types of IP rights in fashion industry. To study the value of copyright of designs in this industry.

Literature Review In this part we would be discussing the hypothetical and conceptual framework associated with the research problem would be discussed by developing theoretical arguments. In this study report we would be discussing the piracy which is being followed in the industry. The copying of design is being followed in three ways: trend imitation, counterfeit goods, and knockoffs. These problems can affect anyone from a start-up designer who find replicas of his or high work in high street to a famous designer of haute couture whose designs are duplicated by knockoff artists hours after they appear on the red carpet. Copying is endemic in the fashion industry but the effects are sharp especially for the emerging designers for whom every sale counts. The damage due to knockoffs is in two ways. Firstly, it robs the designer of the proceeds from the sale of his or her product, which will often have been the result of a considerable research and development investment. On the other hand not everyone believes that the designs should be protected. Some believe that in the fashion world a fashion designer

design should remain in the public and this is how the fashion industry thrives. It is a vicious circle, where the high end designers do the initial work of forecasting and creating new and original designs and the high street brands like H&M, Zara, imitates the same designs and sell at a very low cost. Laws protecting fashion designs currently exist in various countries across the world. Countries like Japan, Spain, Italy, India, France and the European Union has passed legislations which are in the interest of the designers. The European Union laws are most similar to the United States laws because they provide protection for both registered and unregistered designs. All the countries follow a different procedure in providing protection to the designers design. Intellectual property rights can be classified into three parts: 1. Copyright- A copyright entails a creator of original work exclusive rights and gives the copyrightholder to be credited for his/her work. It is a legal concept and it varies from government to government. In the constitution of US, under chapter-13 a design is original if it provides a distinguishable variation over prior work pertaining to similar article which is more than merely trivial and has not been copied from another source. Even though copyright protection attaches from the time of creation but it still needs to be registered. In fashion industry it is difficult to get a copyright protection as clothing is considered utilitarian.

2. Trademark It is a way of signifying the owner of goods and services. A trademark is a sign or an indicator used by an individual or an organization to distinguish its product from others. It could be in any form like words, images, color, shape, sound, smell etc. can be registered for trademark. Anything which is capable of being represented graphically can be registered as a trademark. But a trademark alone does not protect all aspects of legal designs. For example Louis Vuitton v. Dooney & Bourke, Inc., the court found apparent similarities between LVs Murakami handbags and Dooney & Bourkes bag which featured the monogram in an array of bright colors set against a white background and was similar to LVs bag, even though there were lot of similarities

but the court did not agreed.

3. Patents A patent covers the decorative aspect of an article, instead of its utility. A design may get design patent protection when it is new, original and attractive. But alike copyrights and trademark law, a patent also does not guarantee enough protection for fashion designs. The cost and lengthy process of patent registration makes it difficult for a designer by the time a designer gets his/her design patented, the garment loses its functionality.

Research Methodology Research Methodology pertains to the methods and techniques used in regard to collecting data for selected study. Research helps in finding information about the competitors, current market trends and about the customers. Research can be conducted by two methods, primary research or secondary research. Primary Research It refers to information that is directly collected from the source. It can be both quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative Research - Quantitative primary research involves the collection of numerical information from surveys. Qualitative Research - Qualitative primary research involves gathering information from interviews or focus groups. Open-ended interviews include questions that cannot be answered with a yes or no. You can get a lot of information from such interviews and also find out about the dislikes, likes, requirements, trends and emotional motivators of your primary market A focus group should ideally be led by experienced professionals who can lead a group of 6 or more people and ask them both general and specific questions. Since trained professionals are required to handle focus groups, they are very expensive.

Secondary Research - It is more economical and easier to do when compared to primary research.
Here you will have to analyze the information that has been collected for some other reason. You can find the data that you require through a set of articles, demographic/ statistical data, studies etc. By investing in secondary market research you can analyze your target markets, evaluate yocompetitors and assess political, social and economic factors. The internet has a large number of secondary data sources and most resources, magazines and press releases are now available online. There are large numbers of resources from which secondary research information can be obtained. Some of the sources are:

1. Trade associations From the reports available with trade associations we can get information on the industries served, the standards that they observe and the leaders in their field. We can also get information on the latest trends, issues and competitors. 2. The marketing departments of local colleges The marketing department of any college can give us access to special research projects and reports prepared by students. 3. Chamber of commerce The local chamber of commerce in the area can give us information on the local community and local businesses. We can also get access to the maps of the area. 4. Insurance companies, banks and real estate companies We can get information on the statistics of the communities to whom they provide services. 5. Wholesalers and manufacturers From manufactures and wholesalers we can get information on customers, problems if any, costs, industry standards etc 6. Libraries and other public information centers In the reference sections of libraries and information centers we can find a lot of resource materials and data.

7. Books and publications There are several books which can give us information on a particular type of industry or market. Trade journals are another excellent source for information. We can also get information from government publications. 8. Magazines and newspapers We can get a lot of information from news events and get the latest information on politics, economic indicators etc. The archives of leading newspapers and magazines can provide you with a wealth of information. Industry journals are another source of information. 9. Media representatives Media representatives who work with print, audio or audio-visual media mostly collect information on the markets that their viewers, readers and listeners are interested in. 10. Competitors By researching on the price, products/services, brochures and reports of the competitors we can get a greater insight on how to move forward in the business. 11. Business information centers Such centers usually have a large collection of videos, books, CDs, publications and other information that are helpful for small businesses. 12. Federal government resources We can get in-depth demographic data related to the economy, market or population. 13. Regional planning organizations If looking for data on a communitys past or current growth trend, we can look up the resources of regional planning organizations. 14. Discussion groups Discussion groups are commonly known as Newsgroups. We can get a lot of information on a variety of topics from such groups. For this study, both the primary and secondary research methods will be used. In regard to primary data collection, survey and semi structure interview methodologies will be used in which survey will be done with the help of questionnaires and for semi structure interview, researchers would target the upcoming and established fashion designers. This research will be based on interview with a lawyer who has an expertise in intellectual property rights in fashion industry and how they think that by giving a legal status to their designs will be worth the investment. Questionnaires would be get filled from the art and design students to find out their views of protection in fashion industry. The data collected from interview and questionnaires will be analyzed in both qualitative and quantitative method. Sample for primary research would be selected randomly as it is the most significant way to undertake a research through questionnaire. Both of these methods will enable the researcher to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. Alternatively, secondary research methods like literature review, published studies & articles review will also be used so that, all essential information required to conduct study can be collected. The questionnaire would be mailed to all participants and the data collected would be analyzed with the help of thematic analysis. With this, it would become easy for researcher to reach at final conclusion and recommendations.

Research Methodology and Obstacles The data of the study cannot be gathered without understanding that what research methodology is and which factors impacts the selection of data collection methods. To accomplish the aim of this study, researcher will also evaluate different philosophies, approaches, strategies, designs, etc. to select well suitable data collection methods. Understanding of research methodology increases the reliability of the collected data. Research Philosophy: Research philosophy will guide the researcher to understand the nature of the study and design the study in an efficient manner. Three different types of philosophies are positivism, interpretivism and realism. All these three philosophies have their own significance in different files but in this study, researcher will implement interpretivism and critical realism philosophy. Both of these philosophies are associated with the real and different perceptions of individual and this issue of marketing challenges is also based on variety of challenges, which can be different for individuals. Thus, both of these philosophies will be suitable instead of positivism. Research Approaches: After selecting adequate research philosophy, researcher will choose proper approach for the issue, so that correct data collection methods can be selected. It is important to manage the process of research methodology and justify the selection of research methods. Deductive and inductive are two different kinds of research approaches, which are entirely opposite from each other. In this study, researcher will use inductive approach as the research issue specific and there will be no need to develop hypothesis. This issue is linked with several factors and there is no need to develop a theory, thus inductive approach will be more justified rather than deductive. Deductive approach will not used by researcher because it requires development of hypothesis and it focuses on general information to develop theory. Research Obstacles: Accomplishment of this research study will be a critical task for the researcher because of several obstacles. These obstacles included limitation of time and budget as researcher has limited time and money to finish this study and explore wide range of data and information. Due to the limited availability of time, it will be difficult for the researcher to take a large sample size and implement statistical technique because these will be complicated and it require lots of time. Lack of time will also restrict the researcher to evaluate wide range of new reports and articles, which can affect the result of the study and it, might be possible that some important factors will not be disclosed. Another obstacle to conduct this study will be the vague and unrelated response of participants.

Sometime, participants will not have interest or knowledge about the study and they will give general of vague responses, which wastes time of researcher and increase his complications to resolve the issue and achieve objectives. Limited budget will also be a problem for the researcher as he cannot spend more money on technical equipments and accessories to record interview responses. This will lead manipulation in the study.

Conclusion On the basis of above conclusion, it can be said that this research project will provide an extensive overview of the fashion industry and the challenges in this industry. Even though Intellectual Property Rights in Fashion Industry is relatively old but it is yet to be implemented properly. While the designers believe that there designs should be protected from such infringement, others in the fashion industry feel that the industry thrives on this. Therefore, further research into this matter will help in concluding whether Intellectual Property Rights are beneficial in the clothing industry or not.

Reference
Susan Scafidi,Intellectual Property and Fashion Design, in 1 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND INFORMATION WEALTH 115, 116 (Peter K. Yu ed., 2006) Sara R. Ellis. (2011). Copyrighting Couture: An Examination of Fashion Design Protection And Why The DPPA And IDPPA Are A Step Towards The Solution To Counterfeit Chic. Julie P.Tsai. (2005). Fashioning Protection: A Note On The Protection Of Fashion Designs In The United States. www.wto.org [online]. [Accessed 29th March 2012]. Available from: <http:// www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/intel1_e.htm>. http://oxforddictionaries.com/ [online]. [Accessed 29th March 2012]. Avail-able from: <http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/piracy>. http://www.businessoffashion.com/ [online]. (2011) [Accessed 29th March 2012]. Available from: <http://www.businessoffashion.com/2011/07/fash-ions-intellectual-propertyconundrum.html>. Image: http://www.scenicreflections.com/ [online]. [Accessed 31th March 2012]. Available from: <http://www.scenicreflections.com/files/Louis-_Vuit ton_Multicolored_Wallpaper_0dfu6.jpg>.