Lessons From Fashion's Free Culture Johanna Blakely Only ® (and patent) Why no copyright on fashion/clothing? Imagine owning the tee shirt and then licensing? Incentive to innovate? Japan and EU allow for copyright High/low novelty standards
Blakely Cont'd Fashion industry is “open source,” top down and bottom up Fashion designers can sample and transform! Big clothing companies can copy fashion designs...knock-offs don't create market harm Thin protection=more innovation. Designers cannot just sit on their creations and license/profit from them
Blakely Cont'd Fashion is democratized This culture of copying leads to innovation, competition and MONEY! Low IP industries (i.e. clothing, food, autos) have higher revenues than high IP industries (i.e. film, music, books, etc.) Fashion benefits from being open source Could this work in other industries???