Picovschi Lawyers advise new creative entrepreneurs to help them better protect their clothing collections. This step is crucial for preserving the originality of your creations and for fighting counterfeiting. Prior legal counsel is essential so that you may anticipate any litigation. It is also in cases of infringement, whether you are the defendant or the plaintiff.
Industrial property: legal counsel is invaluable
As an entrepreneur who specializes in fashion and design, it is essential for you to register your designs to take advantage of the industrial property protections available. This procedure is invaluable because it qualifies your designs as industrial property and ensures proof of your ownership rights. However, as the fashion industry is constantly changing, so are the creations, which must be constantly renewed and filed as new designs are developed.
To seek knowledgeable legal counsel regarding industrial property is to choose to ensure effective and limited protections for your creations. Indeed, only an expert lawyer can advise you well on which designs can and should be filed with the INPI. In the fashion industry, it is actually not wise to protect your entire collection, which is why an experienced lawyer is important and can help you optimize your choices and rights.
In addition, for pieces that have not been registered, your lawyer will defend your rights on the basis of copyright law, but also of designs (even unregistered) provided by EU Community law.
The EU Community law provides limited protection for three years for designs which have not been filed from the time they were publicly disclosed. Your lawyer must demonstrate when exactly it was disclosed in case of infringement.
Employing a lawyer’s services is essential in case of dispute
If you are a fashion entrepreneur and you realize that a competitor has copied your designs and you want to appeal, a lawyer is usually required. Indeed, only a competent lawyer can best defend your rights by pursuing charges of infringement against your competitors and potentially unfair competition as well.
Your lawyer, with plenty of experience, will base his or her arguments based on the provisions of the Intellectual Property Code relating to copyrights and protections for designs. To claim protection of these rights, the designs must meet certain requirements, and the burden of this proof falls on the lawyer.
It is also possible to come up with a single assessment of claims for compensation for unfair competition, if there exists evidence separate from the counterfeiting case, such as imitation of design to debase and destroy your reputation.
In order to be as prepared as possible to win your case, you have to have a strong case with indisputable elements. The key to success is the lawyer.
Employing a lawyer is an essential, anticipatory investment, because he or she will then help you choose the designs to file and draft the submission. Your lawyer is there to guarantee your right whether you are the plaintiff or defendant in a case of infringement and/or unfair competition.
