Design Piracy Prohibition Act

This bill was introduced by Rep. William D. Delahunt (Ma.) on April 25, 2007, with five co-sponsors. Its title is “(t)o amend title 17, United States Code, to provide protection for fashion design.”  It is the counterpart bill of S. 1957 that was introduced on the Senate floor by Sen. Charles E. Schumer (NY) on August 2, 2007 with ten other co-sponsors.  As of May 4, 2007, the latest major action on this piece of legislation is its referral to the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property. On the other hand, on the Senate floor, it underwent two readings on August 2, 2007 before its referral to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.  This legislation may be cited as the “Design Piracy Prohibition Act.”

This piece of legislation seeks to provide copyright protection to fashion designs. A “fashion design” is defined under the bill as the “appearance as a whole of an article of apparel, including its ornamentation,” while the term “design” includes “fashion design”, except to the extent expressly limited to the design of a vessel.  On the other hand, “apparel” is defined as “an article of men’s, women’s or children’s clothing, including undergarments, outerwear, gloves, foot wear, and head gear; handbags, purses, and tote bags; belts; and eyeglass frames.”

Not given copyright protection by this legislation are fashion designs that are contained in a useful article that was made public by the designer or owner more than three months before the registration of copyright application. On the other hand, fashion designs that are afforded copyright protection are given up to three years of such protection. An infringing article is one that includes any such the design of which has been copied from an image of a protected design without being duly authorized by the copyright owner. However, the proposed bill qualifies that the following acts does not constitute infringement: making, having made, importing, selling, or distributing any article which contains a design which was created without knowledge or reasonable grounds to know that protection for the design is claimed and was copied from such protected design.

Further, this proposed legislation seeks to apply the doctrine of secondary infringement and secondary liability to actions related to original designs.  The bill provides that any person who is liable under such doctrine is subject to all the remedies, including those attributable to any underlying or resulting infringement.  Under this bill, the Register of Copyrights is mandated to know whether or not the application refers to a design which on its face appears to be within the subject matter protected as original designs and, if so, allow the registration of such design.  Finally, the amount of imposable damage awards for infringement of original designs is sought to be increased under this proposed piece of legislation.

Also See:

FCC Adopts New Rules Permitting TV Channel Sharing by Broadcasters; Enacts First Step Towards Freeing UP Spectrum under Incentive Auction

FCC Modernizes Broadcast Television Public Inspection Files to Give the Public Online Access to Information Previously Available Only at TV Stations

Copyright Office Conducts Proceedings on Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems

Legislation to Deregulate Television Market Introduced in House and Senate

Copyright Office Proposes New Fee Schedule