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"It may not put an end to the seemingly endless supply of faux designer handbags that flood the underground market in New York City and beyond, but the introduction of Senator Chuck Schumer&amp;#39;s new bill to protect fashion designers and their intellectual property is definitely a step in the right direction.\nPinterestFacebookAccording to The New York Times, the proposed Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prevention Act &amp;quot;provides very limited intellectual property protection to the most original design. A designer who claims that his work has been copied must show that his design provides &amp;#39;a unique, distinguishable, non-trivial and non-utilitarian variation over prior designs.&amp;#39; And it must be proven by the designer that the copy is &amp;#39;substantially identical&amp;#39; to the original so as to be mistaken for it. The bill would cover all fashion designs, including products like handbags, belts and sunglasses, for a three-year period from the time the item is seen in public&amp;#8212;on a runway, say. Factors than can&amp;#39;t be used in determining the uniqueness of a design are color, patterns and a graphic element. In other words, the bar is extremely high to determine what qualifies as a unique and distinguishable fashion design. And the burden is on the innovative designer.&amp;quot;\nSign up for Glamour.com&amp;#39;s Style Tips of the Week and Beauty Tip of the Day newsletters!\nWhile it won&amp;#39;t be easy to prove that someone&amp;#39;s designs have been copied, the bill has the full support of the Council of Fashion Designers of America and its executive director, Steven Kolb: &amp;quot;The fact that there will be a law in this country, as there are in other developed countries, will make people think twice,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;The law in itself is a powerful deterrent.&amp;quot; Fashion designers--including Narciso Rodriguez and Maria Cornejo--have been pushing hard for this legislation in Washington, and view this bill, which is expected to pass this fall, as an overall victory. Though Schumer admitted that not every designer will feel sufficiently protected, he called it &amp;quot;a good first step,&amp;quot; and the Times pointed out that it may have the positive effect of forcing fashion designers to think in a more innovative way.\nWhen we&amp;#39;ve talked designer knockoffs before, a lot of you dolls said that the whole point of buying designer is for the quality, and you&amp;#39;d rather have something that&amp;#39;s authentically fabulous than a wannabe version of it. Do you think the passing of this bill will help protect from those wannabes flooding the market? Do you think designers deserve even more protection for their intellectual property? Will this bill be a step in the right direction? Discuss!\nPLUS!\n- Wearing logos: A Do or a Don&amp;#39;t?\nAND:\n- &amp;#39;Tis the season for...counterfeit street shopping!?\nPhoto: Jenny Feldman\nWant more fashion news as it&amp;#39;s happening? Follow us on Twitter!\nLatest Tweets!\nFollow us on Twitter!"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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