Ironic Infringement

Interesting story in today’s NY Times regarding fashion designers and their plea for copyright protection. Dana Foley and Anna Corinna, two ex-flea-marketers turned millionaire fashionistas are a bit upset that other designers, primarily Forever 21, are “copying” their designs (what they call “knockoffs”) and selling them at much lower prices (at times 10% of the Foley & Corinna price). The irony my friends is this, that Foley & Corinna itself grew into a million dollar enterprise based on employing “knockoff” strategies or, what we’d like to call, artistic inspiration.

“But Ms. Corinna has an eye for vintage fashion, and Ms. Foley is intuitive about how to make new versions of those styles for modern women. For those reasons customers — and knockoff artists — have sought them out.”

The NY Times article does address this disparity: “That business thrives because most designers take ideas from the past, especially from vintage clothes, a fact that does not help the cause for copyright protection. Designers often send memos, for example, to vintage dealers describing what they are looking for each season, and so Ms. Foley and Ms. Corinna usually knew what trends were going to turn up. …The idea for the City Tote happened when a customer admired a tiny vintage foldover bag Ms. Corinna had unpacked. She decided not to sell it. Instead, she realized she could enlarge the bag and add a pocket and the handle, with knots at both ends. Foley & Corinna sells more than 1,000 of the bags each month.” What’s good for the ironic goose, is good for the…

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