COPY CATS BEWARE - THE FEDS ARE TRYING TO CRACK DOWN ON YOU

U.S. Senators introduced a bill last week in Washington to prosecute design thief’s – or as we know them “knock-offs.”

If the bill is passed, companies will not be able to sell copies of an original design registered by a designer with the U.S. Copyright Office. If they do - they will incur a penalty will be copyright infringement lawsuit.

Under the bill, called the Design Piracy Prohibition Act, designers would be protected for up to three years against piracy. A similar bill was presented in the House of Representatives in April by Representatives Delahunt, Goodlatte, Maloney and Bono.

Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Herb Kohl (D-WI), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) introduced the bill in Washington D.C. last Thursday, August 2.

Intellectual property protection is common in Europe for designers. The label Chloe successfully sued UK retailer Topshop for making an identical yellow romper. But in the U.S., current laws only deal with counterfeit goods (those infringing on a registered trademark that purports to be authentic) but does not protect a designers' ideas.

Narciso Rodriguez, Marc Bouwer, Nicole Miller, Jeffrey Banks, Yeohlee Tang, Richard Lambertson of Lamberston Truex and Dana Foley of Foley and Corrina were among the American designers present at a press conference today hosted by Senator Schumer at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York to support the bill.

From Fashion Wire Daily