In their day‑to‑day operations, fashion brands regularly navigate challenges that emerge where fashion meets the law and increasingly face complex questions at the intersection of fashion and legal regulation, such as: 

• What are the main intellectual property rights (IPRs) available to protect fashion products?
• What contractual arrangements are useful in manufacturing, distributing and advertising fashion products?
• What regulations govern online marketing and how are the rules enforced?
• What are the most relevant unfair competition rules for fashion businesses and how do the courts interpret and enforce these rules?
• Is there any regulation specifically addressing sustainability or ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) in the fashion industry?
• With customs monitoring, do any special import and export rules apply to fashion products?

Sarah answers these questions and gives an overview of the broad range of intellectual property (IP) protection the UK has, which makes it an ideal jurisdiction for safeguarding the creativity that is central to the fashion industry. In addition to many of the rights it shares with its EU neighbours, such as trade marks, registered and unregistered design rights and copyright, it also has some UK-specific rights, such as passing off and an extended unregistered design right for 3D designs.

You can read the full chapter here.