Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

The Anti-Economy Of Fashion: An Openwork Approach To Intellectual Property Protection, Amy L. Landers

Amy L. Landers

Fashion’s cultural connections provide the groundwork for a theory to resolve the critical questions of protection for works that draw strongly on exogenous inputs. This article proposes that narrow protection for fashion is both economically justified, theoretically sound, and beneficial to the field because it facilitates spillovers in a manner that allows others to create the endless variations that are the lifeblood of this vibrant industry. Such protection relies on a theory of openworks, which applies to designs that have a high level of input from outside of the creator’s realm of activity. In fashion, inspiration that derives from the …