Last Wednesday's edition of Women's Wear Daily published an article entitled Fighting Knockoffs by Protecting a Brand (sub required) which detailed the specific costs a designer could face for the protection of their design and intellectual property. Not surprisingly, WWD found the costs of idea and brand protection coul more...

Two recent issues regarding intellectual property and sewing contractors (include service providers in general) have come up and I'm posting them separately in order to thread the comments appropriately because we need feedback on both. Follows is a conversation I'm having with Robin. She has designed a product that I d more...

A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Generally, the term of a new patent is 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the United States or, in special cases, from the date an earlier related a more...

A trademark is a word, name, symbol, or device that is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others. A servicemark is the same as a trademark except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. The terms "trademark" an more...

Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U. S. Code) to the authors of "original works of authorship," including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works. Section 106 of more...