Fashion is bigger business than ever, and is weathering the current economic downturn well, including thanks to an increasing focus on emerging markets and supply chain consolidation. Franchises and licences are being taken back in-house to improve brand strategies, quality and the bottom line, and constant action is being taken to protect the valuable brands and designs that fashion businesses are built on. Once frowned upon as insufficiently exclusive, the digital world is now a key market, but also a hotbed for copycats and counterfeits. Appointing the right designers is also a fundamental ingredient for a fashion house's success and image.
All of these issues require legal input, transforming what was previously a rather niche legal sector into a key service area. This has led to an increasing number of lawyers specialising in so-called "fashion law" – either in-house at leading luxury brands and high street retailers, or in private practice acting for the whole spectrum of fashion clients, from conglomerates to up-and-coming designers. Cases involving fashion brands and designers are also increasingly hitting the mainstream press and social media, leading to an increasing awareness of brand and design disputes and controversies.
In a recent high-profile case, Christian Louboutin sued YSL in the US in relation to a pair of red-soled shoes. Christian Louboutin's brand is founded on his iconic red-sole, and he has protected this feature as a registered trade mark, which he claimed was infringed by YSL. The US Courts held that, while the trade mark was generally valid - and so could in principle be infringed by other red-soles - it was not infringed by YSL, since its shoe was completely red and so did not feature a red-sole as a stand-out branding feature.
Twitter recently became a platform for airing fashion disputes in two separate instances, where the print designer Kate Moross and jewellery brand Tatty Devine respectively accused Topshop and Claire's Accessories of copying their designs.
Many luxury brands operate zero tolerance policies in relation to copycats and counterfeits, employing teams to monitor physical and online markets to track down and pursue infringements. Burberry, Coach, and Hermes were recently awarded multi-million damages against counterfeiting gangs, and companies like L'Oréal and LVMH have led trade mark litigation involving auction and search engine sites like eBay and Google to try to curb online abuses. The hijacking of both emerging and famous brands in China is also a major issue.
And who could forget John Galliano's unceremonious exit from Christian Dior following his anti-Semitic outburst in a Parisian bar? He was fined, stripped of his Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, and ordered to pay damages – but is now alleging unfair dismissal against Dior.
Legal education is catching up with this boom – with law schools, design colleges, and MBA courses in the UK, France, US and elsewhere specifically covering fashion law issues.
With all this activity, fashion law is emerging as a major trend, and should not go out of style any time soon.
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