In 2006, the CFDA took a leadership role in supporting legislature that would protect designers’ intellectual property. President Diane von Furstenberg, as well as several CFDA Members including Joseph Abboud, Jeffrey Banks, Marc Bouwer, Nicole Miller and Zac Posen and Gela Nash-Taylor of JUICY COUTURE, traveled to Washington D.C. to meet with senators to discuss the importance of the issue.

The Design Piracy Probation Act will protect original fashion designs for a period of three years from their registration with the U.S. Copyright Office.

CFDA Executive Director Steven Kolb praised the bill, saying “We are grateful to this influential group of U.S. Senators for recognizing the threat that piracy poses to designers in America today, and we are pleased that they have introduced such a powerful measure to help put an end to it.”

Design Piracy describes the increasingly prevalent practice of enterprises that seek to profit from the invention of others by producing copies of original designs under a different label. These duplicate versions then have the potential to flood the market and devalue the original by their ubiquity, poor quality, or speed at which they reach the consumer. Technological advances to the means of textile and garment production, as well as increases in the number of distribution channels and the availability of cheap labor in emerging economies have created serious challenges to the growth of fashion design in America. The Design Piracy Prohibition Act grew from these concerns, and was initiated with two main objectives: to protect both the established and the up-and-coming designers whose development, growth and success helps to support the $350 billion U.S. fashion industry; and to preserve intellectual property.

The Geoffrey Beene Foundation has made a financial contribution of $250,000 to support the CFDA’s efforts to extend copyright protection to designers.

For more information of the Design Piracy Prohibition Act, please visit www.stopfashionpiracy.com.