Fashion and apparel sit in an awkward spot for intellectual property. Design cycles turn over in months, manufacturing and distribution span the globe, and the protections that work for other products often fall short. We counsel fashion houses, apparel companies, and accessory and luxury brands on building IP strategies that fit how the industry actually operates, not how the textbook assumes it does.
Protecting Designs and Patterns
Protecting a design takes more than one tool. We advise on design patents for distinctive product shapes, trade dress for the look and feel that signals your brand, and copyright for original textile and surface patterns. We coordinate international design registration so protection follows your products into the markets where they sell and the markets where they get copied first.
Brand Building and Trademarks
In fashion, the name and logo often carry more value than any single garment. We build trademark portfolios that cover your house marks, sub-brands, and signature elements, file across the classes and countries that matter, and watch for conflicting filings. We also clear new marks before launch, so a collection does not ship under a name that draws an opposition or an injunction.
Fighting Counterfeits
Counterfeiting is a constant in fashion, especially online and across borders. We build enforcement programs that combine customs recordation, marketplace takedowns, and targeted investigations into the sellers behind the listings. When the situation calls for it, we pursue counterfeiters in court, going after the operations that fuel the fakes rather than chasing individual knockoffs one at a time.