Introduction

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Property Law ◽  
Fashion Industry ◽  
Culture Studies ◽  
Intellectual Property Law ◽  
Race Ethnicity

This chapter introduces readers to the knock-off fashion trade in Tecpán, Guatemala, where hundreds of indigenous Maya men own small-scale workshops where they make clothing that features unauthorized reproductions of popular fashion brands. Drawing on the anthropology of fashion, cultural studies, archaeology, and material culture studies, the Introduction also develops a theory of style that emphasizes the importance of copying and imitation to processes of cultural production. The chapter situates fashion branding within a broader context of “highland style,” defined by an effusive aesthetics and complicated relationships among race, ethnicity, gender, and dress in a place perhaps best known for the traditional, woven blouses and skirts (traje) worn by many Maya women. Appreciating the importance of copying and imitation to the unfolding of style in highland Guatemala and across the global fashion industry opens up questions about the privileging of a particular model of creativity, originality, and modernity in international intellectual property law.

Regulating Style

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kedron Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Brand Names ◽  
Fashion Industry ◽  
International Trade Agreements ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Legal Frameworks ◽  
Maya People

Fashion knock-offs are everywhere. Even in the out-of-the-way markets of highland Guatemala, fake branded clothes offer a cheap, stylish alternative for people who can’t afford high-priced originals. Fashion companies have taken notice, ensuring that international trade agreements include stronger intellectual property protections to prevent and punish brand “piracy,” the unauthorized reproduction of trademarked brand names and logos. Regulating Style approaches the fashion industry from the perspective of indigenous Maya people who make and sell knock-offs, asking why they copy and wear popular brands, how they interact with legal frameworks and state agents who criminalize their livelihoods, and exploring the localized ethics, norms, and values that structure their trade. Beyond showing that intellectual property proponents misrepresent the presumed threat that “piracy” poses to the economy, this book argues that international law itself perpetuates powerful divisions of race, class, and gender across a postcolonial field, institutionalizing a discriminatory divide between populations designated as rightful creators and consumers and others disparaged as mere copycats. Drawing on cultural studies, archaeology, and material culture studies in anthropology, this book develops a robust theory of style that emphasizes the centrality of copying and imitation to processes of cultural production. In analyzing the relationship of style to race, class, gender, indigeneity, and discourses of entrepreneurship and development that privilege a particular model of creativity, originality, and modernity in Guatemala and beyond, Regulating Style offers a new perspective on what is really at stake for fashion companies in the globalization of intellectual property law.

Western Dualism and the Regulation of Cultural Production

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-116
Author(s):  
Fiona Macmillan
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Property Law ◽  
Western Thought ◽  
The West ◽  
Intellectual Property Law ◽  
The World ◽  
Legal Regimes

Abstract This work sets out to consider the fate of creativity and forms of cultural production as they fall into and between the regimes of cultural heritage law and intellectual property law. It examines and challenges the dualisms that ground both regimes, exposing their (unsurprising) reflection of occidental ways of seeing the world. The work reflects on the problem of regulating creativity and cultural production according to Western thought systems in a world that is not only Western. At the same time, it accepts that the challenge in taking on the dualisms that hold together the existing legal regimes regulating creativity and cultural production lies in a critically nuanced approach to the geo-political distinction between the West and the rest. Like many of the distinctions considered in this book, this is one that holds and does not hold.

scholarly journals Prawo własności intelektualnej w branży kosmetycznej

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 63-76
Author(s):  
Gabriela Sacha
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Significant Rise ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Property Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Cosmetic Products ◽  
Environmentally Conscious ◽  
Intellectual Property Law ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
Counterfeit Products

Niniejszy artykuł jest odpowiedzią na rosnące znaczenie rynkowe branży kosmetycznej. Ostatnie lata pokazują duży wzrost zamożności społeczeństwa w Polsce, co niewątpliwie ma wpływ na zwiększenie popytu na produkty kosmetyczne, a wraz z nim na skalę produkcji. Obecnie coraz większą popularność zyskują również marki lokalne albo takie, które tworzą produkty kosmetyczne na małą skalę ze względu na dbałość o naturalne składniki. W konsekwencji zmienia się struktura branży, w której istotne są już nie tylko duże firmy międzynarodowe, ponieważ swoją pozycję na rynku wyraźnie zaznaczają również średni, mali i mikroprzedsiębiorcy. W obliczu tych tendencji producenci prowadzą między sobą zaciętą walkę konkurencyjną o klienta. W niniejszym opracowaniu przeanalizowane zostały przepisy prawa polskiego oraz ustawodawstwa europejskiego. Zagadnienie poddano również badaniu analitycznemu, którego podstawę stanowiły orzeczenia Trybunału Sprawiedliwości Unii Europejskiej, Sądu Najwyższego oraz opisy  patentowe poszczególnych rozwiązań. W artykule opisano też uregulowania dotyczące produktów kosmetycznych w ustawodawstwie polskim oraz europejskim. Głównym celem jest przedstawienie obowiązujących przepisów prawa własności intelektualnej, które najlepiej odpowiadają specyfice branży kosmetycznej. Ważne jest również opisanie, w jaki sposób przedsiębiorcy mogą bronić się przed wykorzystywaniem ich renomy i pozycji rynkowej przez inne podmioty, które wprowadzają do obrotu tzw. lookalikes lub oferują produkty podrobione. Intellectual property law in cosmetics industryThis article is a response to the growing significance of the cosmetics industry. Recent years have shown a significant rise in individual wealth in Poland, which influences the increased demand for cosmetics products and with it the scale of their production. Currently local brands are also increasing in popularity, as well as small-scale, environmentally conscious and natural product-oriented manufacturers. As a consequence, the structure of the industry is also changing — it is no longer just the large multinational companies that are significant players, as medium, small, and micro-scale entrepreneurs are also making their mark. With such tendencies, manufacturers intensively compete with each other. This article analyses the provisions of Polish and European law. The issue has also been analytically researched, based on the judgements of the Court of Justice of the European Union, the Polish Supreme Court and the patent descriptions of certain industry solutions. This article describes the regulation of cosmetic products in Polish and European legislation. The main aim of the article is the representation of current provisions of intellectual property law, which best reflect the cosmetics industry. This article also aims to show how entrepreneurs can defend themselves from using their prestige and market position by other entities introducing lookalike products or offering counterfeit products.

scholarly journals Material Culture, Indigeneity, and Temporality: The Textile as Legal Subject

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gloria E. Chacón
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Cultural Continuity ◽  
Indigenous Movements ◽  
Property Law ◽  
Intellectual Property Law ◽  
Legal Subject ◽  
Continuity Space ◽  
The Universe

Anthropological and ethnographic scholarship examining textiles in Mesoamerica has traditionally focused on gender, cultural continuity, space/place, its semiotics, and its reproduction of the universe. Literary studies approaches interpret this corpus as another form of literacy, discourse, and ontologies. Recently in Indigenous movements, weaving and textiles have acquired a more politicized edge. In 2019, the question of textiles inspired a flurry of discussions around intellectual property, and, especially, copyrights. This article examines the epistemological divides between authorship and weaving, commons and community, temporality and ancestors and how decolonizing the tenets of intellectual property law may help protect indigenous weavings. 

scholarly journals Blockchain and its relevance to intellectual property law in the fashion industry

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 201-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriela Sacha
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Property Law ◽  
Fashion Industry ◽  
Intellectual Property Law ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Distributed Ledger ◽  
International Regulations ◽  
The Face ◽  
Analytical Research ◽  
Protecting Intellectual Property

Taking into account the growing influence of technology across many industries, this paper demonstrates the implications of the use of blockchain by the fashion industry for protecting intellectual property. In the face of a lack of global regulations on the issue, this paper attempts to outline legal considerations of using blockchain in this new context. The analytical research was based on the European Parliament Resolution on Distributed Ledger Technologies and Blockchains as well as the American, Belarusian, Maltese and Gibraltar laws regulating blockchain. An outline of the blockchain technology leads into a description of how the blockchain technology may be beneficial in different sectors of the economy. This paper aims to present ways in which blockchain may influence intellectual property law and how it may be applied in the fashion industry. Additionally, by pointing out the risks associated with blockchain, this paper highlights the need for implementing international regulations regarding this technology.Technologia blockchain i jej znaczenie dla prawa własności intelektualnej w branży modyBiorąc pod uwagę rosnący wpływ technologii w wielu gałęziach przemysłu, autorka niniejszego opracowania przedstawia w nim konsekwencje wykorzystania technologii blockchain łańcucha bloków przez branżę mody w celu ochrony własności intelektualnej. W obliczu braku światowych regulacji w tym zakresie w artykule podjęto próbę nakreślenia prawnych aspektów wykorzystania technologii blockchain. Badania analityczne zostały przeprowadzone na podstawie Rezolucji Parlamentu Europejskiego w sprawie technologii rozproszonego rejestru i łańcuchów bloków oraz amerykańskich, białoruskich, maltańskich i gibraltarskich przepisów regulujących technologię blockchain. Omówienie zarysu działania technologii blockchain prowadzi do wskazania, w jaki sposób technologia ta może być przydatna w różnych sektorach gospodarki. Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie, w jaki sposób technologia blockchain może wpływać na prawo własności intelektualnej oraz jak może być stosowana w przemyśle mody. Ponadto, zwracając uwagę na zagrożenia związane z technologią blockchain, w tekście podkroślono potrzebę wprowadzenia międzynarodowych regulacji dotyczących tej technologii.

Brand Pollution

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Property Law ◽  
Legal Doctrine ◽  
Intellectual Property Law ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Brand Dilution ◽  
And Gender

Cultural analyses based in semiotics and bureaucratic approaches to intellectual property law tend to treat brands primarily as communications media that relay information from corporations to consumers. Trademark protections are justified largely as measures that protect an efficient transfer of information and in terms of the legal doctrine of “brand dilution.” This chapter questions that framing by analyzing brands as design elements that derive their value and meaning from the contexts of material culture and social practice in which branded goods circulate, drawing evidence from the design and marketing strategies of Maya apparel workshop owners. The chapter involves a critical engagement with the sociology and anthropology of fashion and examines the branding strategies of several fashion firms, especially Abercrombie & Fitch. The chapter argues that the globalization of trademark law is an attempt to concretize and naturalize neocolonial divides along lines of geography, race, and gender that position some populations as rightful creators and consumers and others as mere copycats. The last section describes the efforts of some Maya workshop owners to market their goods using unique brands that reference their indigenous identity, and then explores the political implications and lessons for the anthropology of intellectual property law.

Australian Intellectual Property Law

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark J. Davison ◽  
Ann L. Monotti ◽  
Leanne Wiseman
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Property Law ◽  
Intellectual Property Law
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