Susan Scafidi was quoted in a New York Times article about legal protection against counterfeit designs in the fashion industry.
In Europe, said Susan Scafidi, the founder of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham University, “there is protection for design, a lot more extensively than there is in the U.S.” (Ms. Scafidi has been busy commenting to the press on Forever 21.)
This is why European fast-fashion companies including H&M, Zara, Mango and Topshop don’t find themselves in these situations as often. “Their model isn’t to take runway pieces and knock them off, per se, but to interpret trends,” Ms. Scafidi said. “There is nothing wrong with interpreting trends for the mass market. They learn to switch things up, design-wise, to avoid liability.”
A designer’s path of less resistance may be to send a cease-and-desist letter, or hope for a hefty settlement. (“They build those settlements into their business structure,” Ms. Scafidi said.) One designer approached for this story could not speak to The Times because of the terms of her agreement with a fast-fashion brand.
And big brands that believe they have been copied, such as Gucci, Diane von Furstenberg and Puma, have the resources to pursue more extensive legal action. But for indies or just plain folks, the less expensive, and possibly less rewarding, practice is to shame the copiers on Instagram.
“Indie designers now have this secondary strategy of appealing to the public via social media,” Ms. Scafidi said. This recourse is even cheaper than the stamp it costs to send a cease-and-desist.
