ELZABURU

Fashion Law. Protection of the commercial image of a fashion brand (X)

The ELZABURU firm has had the pleasure of collaborating with the Thomson-Reuters Aranzadi publishing house on the work Fashion Law, a pioneering treatise in Spain on fashion law, which was presented on April 16.

With these small weekly summaries, the ELZABURU professionals who have collaborated on the work offer us a brief overview of their contribution:

Protection of the commercial image of a fashion brand

In the world of fashion there has been a growing interest in the protection of commercial image against imitators who try take advantage of the fame and reputation of well-known brands on the market, presenting itself under a commercial appearance (or trade dress) similar or confusing and that may damage its image by offering goods or services of inferior quality.

La commercial image It is composed of the set of distinctive elements that make up a business or a product and that identify or characterize it, causing the sum of all these elements to create a impression or visual identity that differentiates you from your competitors and achieve a position in the market.

En Spain There is no specific regulation that contemplates commercial image. On the one hand, some elements such as industrial design, intellectual property and/or as a three-dimensional brand can be protected. And, on the other hand, all of them can be protected through the law of unfair competition, which pursues competitive acts that cause interference in the market; As far as we are concerned, we can highlight articles 6 (acts of confusion) and 11 (acts of imitation).

As an example, we can highlight some elements that make up the commercial appearance of fashion products and brands and that can be subject to protection:

The layout of a product sales space: could register as three-dimensional mark if it identifies a specific business origin and differentiates the products or services of competitors. Likewise, it could be registered by industrial design, thus protecting the lines, volumes, colors and shapes that make it up. And finally, the plans of the establishment could be protected by Copyright.
The appearance of a website: may be determined by elements that individually are susceptible to protection by any of the methods mentioned in this entry or as a whole due to unfair competition.
La papeleria (labels, bags, packaging) that are made up of different elements and are the way of presenting themselves (dressing) transmits a distinctive and differentiated visual impression of the product or service and helps position the brand. As in the previous case, each element that composes it could be protected by trademark, industrial design or copyright or as a whole through unfair competition (due to acts of confusion or imitation).
And as a last example, but no less important, the purchasing experience, which includes both marketing, the purchasing phase, after-sales and customer service, is part of this commercial image and that creates a customer loyalty value.