Please sign the online Petition

The Arts of Fashion Foundation has long been an advocate in the development of copyright laws to protect designers. In June 2009, the foundation, in connection with the Council of Fashion Designers of America, created a petition in support of the Design Piracy Prohibition Act. During the AoF Symposium 2009, fashion activist and law professor Susan Scafidi will hold a lecture in educating the public of designer protection rights.

Design piracy, the blatant copying of another's designs, is akin to counterfeiting without affixing the fake designer label. Sadly, because of a lack of adequate legal protection, design piracy has become a way of life in the fashion industry in the U.S.

Design piracy is unfair to designers and is detrimental to competition within the fashion industry. It effectively allows others to plagiarize the original designer's creative ideas and reap the benefits of the creator's labor and assumption of risk.

The U.S. legal system plays a key role in maintaining a fair playing field for businesses across a wide range of industries. However, the current intellectual property laws in the United States do not offer effective protections to ensure fair competition within the fashion industry.

Your voice is very important in this determining the kinds of protections our legal system offers to designers.