US: Senate introduced industry-backed bill to protect fashion designs

US Sen. Chuck Schumer (Democrat-New York) introduced in early August new legislation to strengthen copyright protection for fashion designs, with the support from both the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) and the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA).

Both of the organizations believed that the new legislation will for the first time allow creative American designers to benefit from legal protections and at the same time continue to ensure the competitiveness of the US apparel and footwear industry.

Previous legislative efforts to protect fashion designs were met with resistance by US apparel importers, who argued that certain provisions included in those proposals would have encouraged litigation and imposed additional costs on the fashion industry.

According to a joint press release by AAFA and CFDA, the Schumer legislation would provide a three-year term of protection to new and original fashion designs while leaving every design created prior to the enactment of the bill in the public domain.

Only deliberate copies that are substantially identical to the protected designs would be prohibited and neither consumers nor retailers would be liable for inadvertently buying or selling illegal copies. The legislation would also seek to discourage litigation by, among other things, requiring plaintiffs to plead specific facts that establish a case. Defendants would be able to show that the design in question was created separately and independently from a protected design or that it was copied from a design already in the public domain.