COPYCENSE

“For the past several years, as the music and movie industries have gradually consolidated ever more authoritarian control over their copyrights, the fashion industry has been held up as an implicit rebuke to their autocratic ways. Fashion, the story goes, is a similarly creative industry, yet it operates with essentially no prohibition against design copying.

“This laissez-faire idyll may soon be a thing of the past, though. The Council of Fashion Designers of America is meeting with members of Congress tomorrow to gather support for a bill to offer copyrightlike protection to clothing designs.”

Henry Lanman. Copycatfight. Slate. March 13, 2006.

See also:

CopyCense. Lawsuits? Fashion Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Lawsuits. March 1, 2006.

Updates:

Eric Wilson. O.K., Knockoffs, This Is War. The New York Times. March 30, 2006

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

“According to the news release, Daytona 500 is a mix of yuzu, bergamot, mandarin, tarragon, sage, nutmeg, cardamom, amber and sandalwood. It is supposed to be “a fresh, masculine modern fragrance that captures the thrill and exhilaration of the Daytona 500.”

“Elizabeth Arden and International Speedway Corporation, which owns Daytona International Speedway and the licensing rights to the race, hope it is a mix that will inspire not only men, but women (as purchasing agents for their boyfriends and husbands). It is one more way to get women to buy into NASCAR. International Speedway is the sister company of NASCAR, which is doing its part to attract women and their purses with its latest link: a licensing deal with Harlequin Romance novels.

“Not to be left out of the money grab, drivers have forged their own licensing deals and, with NASCAR, are promoting Crock-Pots.”

Viv Bernstein. Eau de Nascar: Licensing and the Smell of Money. The New York Times. March 12, 2006

See also:

Orlando Business Journal. Elizabeth Arden Launches Daytona 500 Scent. Feb. 8, 2006.

Elizabeth Arden. Elizabeth Arden Partners with International Speedway to Launch the Daytona 500(R) Fragrance for Men. (Press release) Feb. 8, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

“Not much has changed at Graceland, a reverentially preserved 21-room Colonial Revival-style mansion, since Elvis Presley‘s former wife, Priscilla Presley, opened it to the public 24 years ago. Video projectors beam low-tech videos of a sweaty, singing, hip-swiveling Elvis onto walls. In a racquetball court behind the house, dozens of his gold records, along with various sequined jumpsuits and trophies, are on display. And, of course, there is the Jungle Room — the wood-paneled den famously decorated in skins and skulls and green shag carpeting.

“Revenue at Elvis Presley Enterprises, which operates Graceland, has barely changed in recent years, either. It has been stuck at about $40 million annually since 2000, and money for improving the property has been scarce.

“That is all about to change. And when the change is over, Graceland may look a lot like Disneyland.”

Julie Bosman. The King’s Legacy, All Shook Up. The New York Times. March 5, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

Advocates for strong IP rights argue that absent such rights copyists will free-ride on the efforts of creators and stifle innovation. This orthodox justification is logically straightforward and well reflected in the law. Yet a significant empirical anomaly exists: the global fashion industry, which produces a huge variety of creative goods without strong IP protection. Copying is rampant as the orthodox account would predict. Yet innovation and investment remain vibrant.

Why, when other major content industries have obtained increasingly powerful IP protections for their products, does fashion design remain mostly unprotected — and economically successful? The fashion industry is a puzzle for the orthodox justification for IP rights. This paper explores this puzzle.

Kal Raustiala & Chris Sprigman. The Piracy Paradox: Innovation and Intellectual Property in Fashion Design. Social Science Research Network. January 2006.

See also:

Rick Karr. Fashion Industry Copes with Designer Knockoffs. National Public Radio. Sept. 18, 2003.

Jennifer Mencken. A Design for the Copyright of Fashion. Boston College Intellectual Property & Technology Forum. Dec. 12, 1997.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

“The NBA logo is, outside of the Olympic rings and the Nike “swoosh,” the world’s most recognizable sports emblem. For years, players, fans and journalists have assumed that the figure depicted within the familiar NBA logo is Jerry West, the Los Angeles Lakers’ Hall of Fame guard and the current president of basketball operations for the Memphis Grizzlies.

“And yet, in a league with a well-deserved reputation for hyping even the most mundane milestone, the NBA did not celebrate the recent 35th anniversary of the logo’s unveiling. The league has also refused to acknowledge publicly that West is the player in the logo. A high-ranking NBA official who asked that his name not be used told me that the identification of West is an ‘urban myth’ and that the league has ‘no definitive records’ about who designed the logo.”

David Davis. If West Is the NBA’s Logo, Should He Be? Fox Sports. Feb. 18, 2006.

Attribution: CopyCense first learned about this story from a post in The Trademark Blog, edited by Marty Schwimmer.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

“The actor Damon Wayans has been engaged in a 14-month fight to trademark the term “Nigga” for a clothing line and retail store, a search of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s online database reveals.

“Wayans wants to dress customers in 14 kinds of attire from tops to bottoms, and use the controversial mark on ‘clothing, books, music and general merchandise,’ as well as movies, TV and the internet, according to his applications.

“But, so far, his applications have been unsuccessful. Trademark examiner Kelly Boulton rejected the registration dated Dec. 22, citing a law that prohibits marks that are “immoral or scandalous.””

Rogers Cadenhead. Actor Tries to Trademark ‘N’ Word. Wired News. Feb. 23, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

“There’s no more highly paid model in the world than Victoria’s Secret babe Gisele Bundchen. The lingerie company shells out around $5 million per year to the 25-year-old Brazilian beauty. But Bundchen doesn’t get a cut of every bra the corporation sells.

“To pocket that kind of “passive” income, Bundchen turned to Brazilian shoe company Grendene, which markets Ipanema Gisele Bundchen sandals. The company slaps the model’s name and likeness on every box of sandals it sells, and in exchange Bundchen pockets around 7% of the wholesale revenue.

“Only the superstars can keep their careers going for much after they turn 30. Assuming she hasn’t married a hedge fund tycoon or just wants to keep working, what’s a supermodel to do?”

Kiri Blakeley. Most Entrepreneurial Supermodels. Forbes.com. Feb. 3, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.