Rule of Law

Mr Gile had done an excellent job of telling me very precise answers for all of my questions. I then started to research some of the laws that were behind his answers. “In the United States, copyright protection derives from the U.S. Constitution, which requires that original works of authorship be protected by copyright. The current source of this protection is the federal Copyright Act of 1976, as amended. There are no state copyright laws.”(Patent, Copyright, and Trademark, Stim, Richard, p. 200) Trademark law is a major issue in the fashion industry. Trademarks are the most infringed upon elements of clothing and accessory design.“Trademark law addresses the overlapping and conflicting uses of trademarks, service marks, and trade dress by different businesses. Commonly, trademark law is applied to resolves disputes when competing businesses adopt similar product names or logos. The rules for resolving these disputes usually favor whichever business was first to use the name, logo, or trade dress on a category of goods within a geographic area. These rules come from decisions by federal and state courts and from U.S. government statutes known collectively as the Lanham Act.” (Patent, Copyright, and Trademark, Stim, Richard, p. 378-379) Mr. Gile didn’t discuss the Lanham Act at all during our discussion. In fact, he didn’t really mention any specific laws to back up any of his arguments, however, he was very confidant and spoke of his own cases to prove his points’ legitimacy. “The Lanham Act also establishes the trademark registration system and provides for judicial remedies in cases of trademark infringement. In addition to the Lanham Act, most states provide for some means of registering trademarks with a state agency and allow for remedies in case of infringement.” (Patent, Copyright, and Trademark, Stim, Richard, p. 379) When it comes to the designers and their original work being infringed upon, I found that there is an amendment that was added to the current law that helps to protect them. “The Design Piracy Prohibition Act of 2009 was again introduced in Congress. If passed, the law would amend the Copyright Act to provide three years of legal protection for unique and original fashion designs. “(Patent, Copyright, and Trademark, Stim, Richard, p. 201) I also looked up what part of the law would be used when it came to using the images and words of musical artists. “In many states, the right of publicity survives death and can be exercised by the person’s estate. Because the right of publicity can trigger a claim of false endorsement or false advertising, these claims are sometimes brought under unfair competition laws, such as Section 43 of the Lanham Act. “(Patent, Copyright, and Trademark, Stim, Richard, p. 465)