Seminar: Intellectual Property Rights in Fashion Industry

Name of the Department: Fashion & Textiles

Name of the Activity: Seminar

Date: 8th October, 2021

Venue: Clothing Lab

Topic on which activity was organized: “Intellectual Property Rights in Fashion Industry”

No. of Participants: 35 students (B.Sc. Sem I, III & V and M.A./M.Com./ M.Sc. Sem I & III)

 

Objective of the activity: The main objective of seminar on IPR was to create awareness about the benefits of Intellectual property among all sections of society. To stimulate the creation and growth of intellectual property by undertaking relevant measures. To encourage generation of IPRs, relating to fashion design specifically.

Description: The Department of Fashion &Textiles conducted an exclusive seminar for upcoming Designers, Creators and Entrepreneurs on “Intellectual Property Rights in Fashion Industry”. Speaker for the session was Mr. Pankaj Kumar, Assistant Professor & IPRCoordinator in the Department of Biotechnology (IPR cell), IIS (deemed to be University) Jaipur.

 

Mr. Pankaj explained the importance of Intellectual Property Rights. He emphasised that anything that our brain has created, has used intellectual strength to create it, needs to be protected. Protection of Ideas, Inventions, Designs and Images can be done through Patents, Copyrights, and Trademarks. Copyright provides various rights to owner and can sue other party if found copying it. He stressed the need to protect Intellectual Property to ensure fair competition, protect consumers and prevent someone from stealing our work. He gave various examples that we may encounter in our daily life like buying copied products from fake companies, and discussed cases from movies and web series for better understanding. The guest lecture covered various aspects of IPRs including IP Tools, Patents, Design, Trademarks, Brand building, Copyright, etc.

Mr. Pankaj enlightened about how Brand names, their Logo, Trade mark plays an important role in identification and gives competitive edge. It distinguishes goods from competitors. One can easily associate brand value by just looking at its logo. The classic Chanel suit designed by Coco Chanel is still sold at high price; no one can copy it due to its copyright.  Burberry sued rapper used his stage name ‘Burberry Jesus” and various branding elements that were trademarks of 164 year old British fashion company. It was possible only because Company had protected their property.

 

He also explained that intellectual property law has played an important role in the proliferation of fashion. Intellectual property rights are governing the intangible innovations of the human intellect. It represents an important body of law in fashion business due to their ability to protect the creations of the mind. It is a matter of the fact that intellectual property rights and the fashion industry move hand in hand. A good visual imagination and creativity are the most important aspects of the fashion industry. The plethora of creativity and visual imagination help the brand achieve the recognition in the market.

Taking examples of runways with very few designs on display or sold in stores, it’s an opportunity for a designer to display their creative talent and track media attention and build awareness of their designs. Piracy and malicious art done by the people in order to on the prophet’s affects the original designers contents. Therefore a country must invest in making the Intellectual property Rights stronger in order to protect the minds of creators. Every budding Designer, Creator and Entrepreneur from any field should have knowledge and awareness about IPR. India’s rich textile and handicrafts, its unique motifs, designs, embroideries need to be protected. Lots of Indian designers and fashion houses register their designs to protect them from copying and theft.

At the end Fashion students were made to aware about college having its own IPR office and providing diploma course in IPR that can help them to know more about IPR and can be hyper creative without worrying of theft or copying of their designs. He added that the research scholars should be well aware of the importance and advantages of patents so that they get a proper recognition and/or financial benefit over the creations of their minds for a certain period of time.

Outcome of the activity: The seminar created awareness about IPR. The activity was able to foster an environment in which creativity and innovation can flourish. Students understood that through IPR income can be generated for startups business through licensing, sale or commercialization of protected products or services. In case of sale, merger or acquisition, having registered and protected IPR assets can raise the value of business. Registration of designs enables inventors of fashion houses to prevent the misuse of the original ideas. Therefore it is important that a fashion house should register itself to prevent the misuse of their designs. Educating themselves is an important factor in order to aware counterfeiters as well as the creators to understand the importance of originality. Government should focus on the recent trends of counterfeiting and pass laws for the fashion industry to save the earth the intellectual property and enhance the country’s economy.