Retailing March 20, 2008, 5:00PM EST

Put a Patent on That Pleat

To thwart pirates, fashion designers are getting copyright and other legal protection for their clothes—then suing

by Reena Jana

Weitzman filed for—and received—a patent for a shoe buckle Len Irish

Halston couture: From the runway to online sales in a day Karl Prouse/Catwalking/Getty Images

When shoe designer Stuart Weitzman saw a pair of $45.99 buckled flats on jcpenney.com (JCP) that looked remarkably similar to one of his own $215 creations, he did what more and more designers are doing: He sued.

In January, Weitzman, whose elegant footwear is worn by the likes of Angelina Jolie and Ivanka Trump, filed a complaint alleging patent infringement in New York federal district court. That's right, the designer had registered a patent for the shoe's buckle and ornamentation. Weitzman offered to settle if Penney would destroy the shoes or sell those it had and give him half of the money. "We're making an original fashion product, a timely product," says Weitzman. "It doesn't rot that quickly, but if it's knocked off, customers stop buying ours." (Penney officials declined to comment on the case, which, as of Mar. 19, had not been settled.) Last year, Weitzman sued Sears (SHLD) over another design, and the retailer agreed to remove the shoes from its Kmart stores.

Weitzman and other top designers such as Diane von Furstenberg have watched the knockoff industry bring couture trends to the masses faster than ever. Los Angeles-based Forever 21, a so-called fast-fashion chain with more than 400 stores in North America, Asia, and the Middle East, has built its whole business around copying designs. And ABS, a mass-market label, is known for quickie interpretations of the gowns worn by celebrities at the Academy Awards ceremony each year; they're sold at department stores such as Lord & Taylor and Dillard's. Some upscale chains such as Nordstrom and Bloomingdale's carry the real labels as well as the cheaper versions.

These days, as even well-to-do shoppers are showing some restraint when it comes to luxury purchases, designers are worried that they'll end up as fashion victims. So they are pushing Congress to help protect their work, trying to outsmart the pirates by making their clothes harder to copy, and, when they can, suing. "We're at the breaking point," says Steven Kolb, executive director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), which is leading the lobbying effort. "We're not going to take it anymore."

TARGETING TARGET

Designers have been trying to win broad legal protection for years. Although books, movies, architecture, and even software code are protected under copyright law as original art, clothing designs are not. So while a dress may look exactly like a Marc Jacobs original, retailers can slap a different label on it and sell it with legal impunity. (Counterfeit garments, by contrast, pretend to be the real thing—right down to the label—and are illegal.)

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