The art we wear

• Author: Jóna N. Mays
• Date: 01 November 2019
• Published date: 01 November 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jwip.12133

© 2019 The Authors. The Journal of World Intellectual Property © 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

J World Intellect Prop. 2019;22:300–312.300

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wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jwip

DOI: 10.1111/jwip.12133

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

The art we wear

Jóna N. Mays

Vanderbilt University Law School, Nashville,

Tennessee

Correspondence

Jóna N. Mays, Vanderbilt University Law

School, Nashville, Tennessee.

Email: jona.n.mays@gmail.com

Abstract

Since humans began wearing clothes, we have used them

to portray characteristics about ourselves including ethnic

origin, tribes, wealth, status, and religion. This paper

discusses the intellectual property protection available

for clothing designs in the United States, Europe, India, and

China. It begins by discussing the history of fashion and

fashion designing across the world during different eras.

Next, the paper explains the early methods used to protect

fashion designs as originators struggled to protect their

creations in regimes that had not yet implemented sui

generis protection for fashion designs. Some regimes,

notably the United States, still do not offer sui generis

protection for fashion designs and have greatly limited the

industry’s ability to self‐regulate against copying. The

paper also discusses and compares the current regime of

fashiondesignprotectionintheUnitedStates,European

Union, India, and China, including their strengths and

deficiencies. Finally, the paper suggests a solution to the

lack of protection in the United States that would treat

fashion design piracy similarly to the treatment of

counterfeit goods.

KEYWORDS

clothing, copyrights, fashion designs, fashion law, intellectual

property, trademarks, TRIPS

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INTRODUCTION

Wearing clothes is a uniquely human trait. Though the date of the origin of clothing is still debated, anthropologists

have found evidence from lice that suggests that people started wearing clothes as early as 170,000 years ago and

remnants of what are believed to have been needles made of animal bones that date nearly as far back as the oldest

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