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A New Look For The Fashion Industry: Redesigning Copyright Law With The Innovative Design Protection And Piracy Protection Act (Idpppa), Brittany West Sep 2012

A New Look For The Fashion Industry: Redesigning Copyright Law With The Innovative Design Protection And Piracy Protection Act (Idpppa), Brittany West

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

Introduced in Congress in August 2010, the Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prevention Act (IDPPPA) would amend 17 U.S.C. § 1301 to extend copyright protection to unique, distinguishable, non-trivial, and non-utilitarian fashion designs. The fashion industry in the United States is currently a $200 billion industry which is afforded limited intellectual property protection compared to foreign markets. This article explores the applicability of the existing Copyright Act to fashion designs and argues that the IDPPPA takes a narrow approach to eliminate ambiguity present in former bills attempting to amend copyright law. The IDPPPA would incentivize innovation, the ultimate goal of …


Argh, Matey! The Faux-Pas Of The Sopa (Stop Online Piracy Act), Anna S. Han Jan 2012

Argh, Matey! The Faux-Pas Of The Sopa (Stop Online Piracy Act), Anna S. Han

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Caveat

Earlier, I posted about a network neutrality case, Verizon v. FCC, which could have far-reaching consequences for the Internet industry. Another concerted attempt to regulate the Internet, disguised in the form of a piracy protection bill, recently came before the House Judiciary Committee and garnered widespread disapproval. Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) and a bipartisan group of twelve co-sponsors introduced the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (“SOPA”) on October 26, 2011, which punishes websites that are accused of facilitating copyright infringement. Although touted by its supporters as a weapon against foreign sites that steal and sell American inventions, SOPA is problematic because …