Forever 21 Faces Lawsuits
Fast fashion giant Forever 21 has had at least twenty lawsuits alleging Intellectual Property rights as of January 2006. Intellectual Property (IP) is associated with many copyright laws. The permits to Intellectual Property are bought and sold as licensing, which in turn protect the owner, inventors, creators, and/ or designers. Copyrights are enduring forms of Intellectual Property, and are the "economic rights to the creator" of the product.
Lawsuits have included conflicts with Diane von Furstenberg, Gwen Stefani's Harajuku Lovers line, Anna Sui, Bebe and Anthropologie. Forever 21 has not commented on the state of the litigation but initially said it was "taking steps to organize itself to prevent intellectual property violations". Forever 21 does not employ its own fabric design team, instead the company purchases textiles from the designs of outside manufacturers. Consequently, the majority of the lawsuits files involve copyright infringement of fabric prints.
H.R. 5055: Design Piracy Prohibition Act
H.R. 5055, or Design Piracy Prohibition Act, is a bill proposed to protect the copyright of fashion designers in the United States. The bill was introduced into the United States House of Representatives on March 30, 2006. Under the bill designers would submit fashion sketches and/or photos to the U.S. Copyright Office within three months of the products’ "publication". This publication includes everything from magazine advertisements to the garment's first public runway appearances. The bill as a result, would protect the designs for three years after the initial publication. If infringement of copyright was to occur the infringer would be fined $250,000, or $5 per copy, whichever is a larger lump sum. The bill was suspended after the House of Representatives session concluded in 2006, this resulted in H.R. 5055 being cleared from the agenda.
Fast fashion giant Forever 21 has had at least twenty lawsuits alleging Intellectual Property rights as of January 2006. Intellectual Property (IP) is associated with many copyright laws. The permits to Intellectual Property are bought and sold as licensing, which in turn protect the owner, inventors, creators, and/ or designers. Copyrights are enduring forms of Intellectual Property, and are the "economic rights to the creator" of the product.
Lawsuits have included conflicts with Diane von Furstenberg, Gwen Stefani's Harajuku Lovers line, Anna Sui, Bebe and Anthropologie. Forever 21 has not commented on the state of the litigation but initially said it was "taking steps to organize itself to prevent intellectual property violations". Forever 21 does not employ its own fabric design team, instead the company purchases textiles from the designs of outside manufacturers. Consequently, the majority of the lawsuits files involve copyright infringement of fabric prints.
H.R. 5055: Design Piracy Prohibition Act
H.R. 5055, or Design Piracy Prohibition Act, is a bill proposed to protect the copyright of fashion designers in the United States. The bill was introduced into the United States House of Representatives on March 30, 2006. Under the bill designers would submit fashion sketches and/or photos to the U.S. Copyright Office within three months of the products’ "publication". This publication includes everything from magazine advertisements to the garment's first public runway appearances. The bill as a result, would protect the designs for three years after the initial publication. If infringement of copyright was to occur the infringer would be fined $250,000, or $5 per copy, whichever is a larger lump sum. The bill was suspended after the House of Representatives session concluded in 2006, this resulted in H.R. 5055 being cleared from the agenda.
H.R. 2033
The Design Piracy Prohibition Act was reintroduced as H.R. 2033 during the first session of the 110th Congress on April 25, 2007. It had goals similar to H.R. 5055, as the bill proposed to protect certain types of apparel design through copyright protection of fashion design. The bill would grant fashion designs a three-year term of protection, based on registration with the U.S. Copyright Office. The fines of copyright infringement would continue to by $250,000 total or $5 per copied merchandise.
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