Stitching Up Industry Issues: Arbitration Can Offer Customized Solutions to Fashion Intellectual Property Disputes

This comment proposes alternative dispute resolution (ADR), specifically arbitration, as a more effective mechanism for resolving fashion copyright disputes. The fashion industry has historically received limited protection for designs—primarily trademark and patent law—resulting in widespread copying and difficulty enforcing claims. In the 2017 case Star Athletica, L.L.C. v. Varsity Brands, Inc., the Supreme Court added copyright to the patchwork of protections. However, that protection is available only for aesthetic elements, not functional ones. The difficulty in distinguishing these components, along with the challenges of enforcing claims across borders and between parties with unequal bargaining power, as in Hian v. Louis Vuitton, necessitates a dispute resolution process tailored to the fashion industry. In the absence of comprehensive intellectual property protections, arbitration provides a cost- and time-effective process that designers and brands can control to address the intricacies of copying disputes in the fast-paced world of fashion.