How Beginner Fashion Retailers Can Protect Their Brand and Designs from Copycats

Counterfeiting is one of the biggest issues facing the fashion industry today, and is indeed a perennial problem that legitimate brands of all sizes have had to cope with over the decades.

While well-known labels may have the resources to deal with fraudsters producing knock-offs, the same may not be true for newer, smaller brands just getting a foothold in the market. Here is a look at the steps they can take to prevent malicious third parties exploiting their precious assets.

Trademark your brand

Registering your brand name and the associated logos that define it is a great step towards protecting intellectual property in Canada or elsewhere.

Once it is registered, you can display the ® symbol wherever it is used, which will not only dissuade would-be copycats but will also give your branding more legitimacy with prospective customers, improving its reputation.

This has the added benefit of meaning that if you do get into a legal dispute with another retailer or fashion house, you have firm evidence to support your case.

Patent unique innovations

The world of fashion may be primarily an artistic one, but there are still aspects of clothing design which can be patented if they are sufficiently groundbreaking.

This may not always be relevant, but if you feel that a functional aspect of the garments you are producing has never been conceived of before, applying for a patent will again give you more cache in the event of infringement.

Work with reputable manufacturing partners

In an era of fast fashion, the decision to offer manufacturing work to the lowest bidder may be tempting if you are aiming to get a small brand off the ground. However, such a move could cost you in the long run, as if the firms you partner with are not especially scrupulous, you could find that your designs are leaked and emulated elsewhere sooner rather than later.

Copyright relevant designs

It is possible to protect designs under copyright law, which is something that applies automatically to original works.

The same protections are not applied to any patterns that outline the steps involved in putting together particular garments, so bear this in mind.

Prevent unwanted image copying

As an up and coming fashion brand, you will no doubt want to make sure that your products are seen and shared by as many people as possible, both on your own website and on social media.

Any images you produce for this purpose could easily be purloined by others and reproduced without credit. To make sure that this is not a possibility, remember to add watermarks to any images of your products that you make available digitally, as well as those that appear in print if possible.

There is no getting away from the fact that counterfeiting costs the fashion industry billions each year, and online fraud is a growing concern for consumers. But by being aware of the risks and being proactive in your efforts to overcome them, you should be in a better position.