Study On Copyright Protection Of Works Of Clothing

Clothing, with no doubt, is an always-concerned-matter in everyone’s daily life. The intellectual property of each piece of clothing design relies on its originality and artistry by the designer. This property should be protected by the Act of copyright protection. Clothing design plays an important role in clothing industry chain. It is not only a product of designers’hard working, but also important to the acceleration of artistic design development and healthy competition in clothing industry. With the economic and social development, a variety of clothing design has been created.However, the conduction of tort which relates to clothing design has been observed frequently in juridical practice in recent years. Under the current legal system of our nation, clothing design has not yet subjected to the protection of copyright. This loophole in legalization, along with increasing number of problematic cases in juridical practice, brought the issue of clothing design’s legal protection into focus.In order to give suggestion to the legal protection of clothing design, this paper conducted the following studies:First of all, discuss the fundamental principle of copyright involves in clothing design; secondly, compare the principle of copyright legal protection with design paten legal protection in clothing design and highlights their differences; thirdly, study the experience in a global scale in clothing design matter with already-established international convention; finally, regarding the current situation of our legal system development, provide suggestion for our nation’s legal protection of clothing design. Some final arguments have been provided as follows:It is necessary to subject clothing design into legal protection individually as a new object in copyright. The property right and personal right that relates to a piece of clothing design has been defined. In terms of the content, it is the designing patent that should be subjected into protection not the clothing itself. In terms of form of protection, it should be divided into a new object division instead of in the form of practical work of art. In terms of the length of protection, it should be authorized25years of protection for the intellectual property only, personal legal right is not subjected into protection. As a conclusion, clothing design now days is entitled to be protected in legal system. Furthermore, it requires a major work in completing copyright protection in order to achieve this goal. A well-built legal protection system for clothing design is highly demanded in our society.