IP Rights and Fashion Technology – Comparative Analysis in Fields and Continents

Fashion is one of the industries which is leading the style and progress among all age groups in the world, whereas the technology and designs are concerned, they are made up with damn hard work and it needs a protection. Development in the time line of relationship between Intellectual Property Rights and the Fashion Industry is a flexible on going one amid the advancements in the other sectors which help to promote the Fashion across the globe. Enormous economic growth and revenue generated shows that this industry needs a hardcore protection of it’s techniques and methods used to generate such a huge amount of fund to sustain, which is only possible when the Designs and Patents are to get designers their absolute rights. These are used to grab attention of its target audience helping the fashion industry to sustain and keep on evolving. Considering the present scenario, it is debatable whether or not fashion designs should get copyright protections or not. The reason being fast fashion, meaning low end designers copy high end designs and produce what we call as “first copy” is the market, which not only infringes the rights of the designer but also hampers the goodwill and the target of the person concerned. So, overally, IP is a primer which fortifies the innovative artistic creations of mind on graphical forms. Although, the degree and gravity of safeguarding is different in US, Europe and India which shows that the initial point was in France, Europe and was followed up by USA and India. The methodology used to create and protect the levels of fashion is too widely described as per the three regions which will show the global distinction and variance.

Patent Trolls and Their Regulation in India

Introduction: The Intellectual Property law in India has undergone an unfathomable change over the past decade. However, innovation, technological advances and the commercial gains which could be derived from such rights have led to the problem of increased litigations such as patent trolls. ‘Patent troll’ is a negative term used to describe an entity that enforces its patents against one or more alleged infringers in a manner that is considered unduly aggressive or opportunistic. Patent Trolls usually have no intention to manufacture or market the patented invention and their sole purpose is to make some quick money through cease and desist orders and Patents infringement litigations.
Purpose: This is a crucial area of research as patent trolls take advantage of the prevalent loopholes in the patent law system in various ways such as drawing huge settlement compensation from companies that cannot afford the cost and resources of litigation; they deter innovative companies from investing in research and development through the threat of litigation; and they do not practice the patents they hold, thus contributing no innovation in the advancement of technology and immunizing themselves from countersuit. In addition, trolls exhibit anticompetitive behaviour.
Methodology: The authors have used secondary sources to understand the prevalent patent law system and the best practices of various countries in order to draw a parallelism for the identification of solutions for the same.
Value: This Paper provides a survey of the modern patent landscape, addressing certain areas of the patent system that patent trolls are able to use to their advantage. This Paper then advocates that various concerned agencies play a more integral role in curbing anticompetitive troll behaviour and proposes several methods of patent reform.