Bus212: Legal and Ethical Leadership and Management
Legal and Ethical Leadership and Management
Business Law and Corporate Ethics | BUS212 A02
June 4, 2013
Professor Melendez
Legal and Ethical Leadership and Management
In the United States Intellectual Property Laws offer little protection to fashion designers, which make copying them fairly easy. Generally, if someone wanted to protect their Intellectual Property, depending on the type, they would apply for a Patent, Copyright, or Trademark. In the fashion industry it’s not quite that simple.
Copyright law does not protect the overall design of clothing. Trademark law only protects the use of logos, symbols on fashion and names, but not the overall design. Patent laws will only provide patents to designs that are “novel” and “non-obvious”, which is difficult to do. Not to mention the expense of patent prosecution and the time involved in the review process. It often times makes this process an unlikely choice.
In the case of Mathis, Inc and Normandale it was unethical for Normandale to sell the knock-off products made by Countess Lori-Ann (CLA) at a lower price. Normandale asked CLA to create an identical line based on the high end line that Mathis, Inc. already had out. They blatantly stole the intellectual property of Mathis, Inc. by providing pictures to CLA for reproduction of their product to sell. This is direct violation to the industry code of ethics. Honest and fair dealings with customers are expected from companies within the same industries. They also need to have non-deceptive advertising, which Normandale did not do by trying to pass off the knock off brand as Mathis, Inc. brand.
Federal and State laws protect owners of intellectual property. Intellectual property consists of the fruits of one’s mind. The laws of intellectual property protect property that is primarily the result of mental creativity rather than physical effort. This category includes trademarks, trade secrets, patents, and copyright (Kubasek). In the case of Mathis, Inc, and Normandale, they were in violation of trade dress laws, which covers the overall appearance and image of a product that has acquired secondary meaning. Under this law Mathis, Inc. would receive the same protection as a trademark would give.
The issue of damages Mathis, Inc. has suffered in lieu of Normandales conduct is three million dollars. That is the gross profit Normandale made from the counterfeit clothing line sales. Not to mention legal costs to file a suit against Normandale and attorney fees to draft the cease-and-desist letters to which they gave no attention. All of which Normandale should have to pay.
We increasingly hear that corporate social