Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Texas

Re: Securing revenue from a fashion design

Protecting an idea such as you have described can be difficult at best. I am assuming that your idea would not otherwise qualify as a novel or new tangible thing (e.g., clothing made from recycled lettuce) or a business process which could be protected by a patent. If not, then about the best you can do is make anyone you approach sign a confidential non-disclosure agreement in which they promise not to reveal or capitalize on the idea without your consent, or more importantly to your pocket book, payment. The problem you run into is proving they subsequently got the idea from you and not from someone else or on their own. A properly drafted agreement can help. In the meantime, be careful who you reveal you idea to. In fact, the safest thing to do is not tell anyone without getting a written non-disclosure agreement. If you have any further questions, please let me know. I am in Plano. (469) 371-3082.

Re: Securing revenue from a fashion design

Contrary to Mr. Look, I think there are some things you can do to protect your design. The advice to get a non-disclosure agreement is of little use. No potential licensee is going to sign anything without seeing the idea first, so asking for a secrecy agreement will give you nothing but disappointment.

What you should first be thinking is copyright, and that is automatic. The more important thing is to register your copyright for every version of it you can imagine & draw, as registration is needed to enforce a copyright in court. You can do this is one application. I charge $100-$200 to prepare and submit a copyright application. If you have multiple items, it will be $200. Plus there is a government fee of $30. The copyright lasts for your lifetime plus 70 years.

The second is to file a provisional patent application (PPA) on any new functional features of the design. For that you need a patent attorney unless you are very experienced at patent preparation. A patent is often a viable option for clothing designs. Oliver Winchester founded the Winchester Repeating Arms Co., the most famous maker of rifles and shotguns, with the fortune he made as a shirtmaker of a patented dress shirt. I know because I was Wincester's patent attorney for nearly 20 years.

Finally, you need a brand name for the line of designs and for the individual designs and get that registered on the Principal Register of the US Patent & Trademark Office. For that you need an attorney unless you have done enough tm or sm Federal applications to be absolutely sure you can do it yourself.

If you do all those things and a designer steals your design, you have a basis for a claim. There are contingent fee attorneys in Chicago and New York that might take such a case. I occasionally do those if they are a sure shot.

The best thing to get a fashion house to listen is to submit designs, with a non-binding request of secrecy, that have copyright protection and, if appropriate, patent and trademark protection. If you use a lawyer, the lawyer can usually get the fashion house to cooperate without having to take anyone to court. Fashion houses, contrary to what you suspect, are not prone to stealing designs because it gets them in trouble and if they are caught doing it completely blows their credibility and destroys their hard earned reputations for originality.

So, you are stronger than you think, but in any initial steps you need an attorney to help you get the honest treatment you deserve in submitting your stuff.

Good Luck. I am a Texas attorney (UT Law 1972)even though located in St. Louis, so I can help. I have experience working with design houses on garment matters. The industry is much more reputable than you think. Now, if you try to deal with foreign design houses, dishonesty is much more of a problem.