The red soles of Louboutins, the Burberry Check, the Hermès orange, and the little black dress by Chanel are all signature products we immediately associate with these high-end brands. But what stops other brands from copying these products? Or what can these brands do to stop other brands from copying these products? In this article, I will compare two different legal systems, the UK and the US legal systems, and explain how fashion trademarking works in each of them.

In my last article, I wrote about fast fashion; a part of this business model is copying clothes from the runway and rapidly and cost-effective replication. Unsurprisingly, there have been many trademark disputes in which a fast fashion brand was involved. In 2017, the high-end brand Gucci sent a cease-and-desist to the fast fashion brand Forever 21. Gucci accused Forever 21 of copying the brand’s signature “blue-red-blue” and “green-red-green” stripes on bomber jackets, sweaters, and chokers. This led to a court trial, which ended in December 2018; Gucci and Forever 21 settled out of court, ensuring Gucci kept its trademark for the stripes intact while Forever 21 had to remove the items from the store.

Unregistered design right in the UK

If you design apparel, you automatically have an unregistered design right; this means without a formal registration process or fees. 

The SUD (Supplementary Unregistered Design) protects the overall appearance of your apparel, colors, patterns, and geographic prints. If you design a skirt with a special geographic design, the SUD is what protects its visual style, for 3 years after you first presented it to the public.The UKDR (UK Design Right) only protects the 3D form, silhouette or a special shape of a product. A normal T-shirt would get no protection under the UKDR, but if you design an asymmetric, specially shaped gown, the UKDR would protect this shape up to 15 years from creation. 

Registered design right in the UK

If a design is registered through the UK Intellectual Property Office, a creation is provided with longer-lasting and stronger protection. This protection covers the 2D and 3D appearance, patterns, graphic designs, silhouettes, and colors all at the same time. After you showcase the designs, you have exactly 12 months to register them in the UK. The protection lasts up to 25 years, but you have to pay for registration, between £ 80 and £ 110.

The International Nice Classification System 

The USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) uses three classes to categorize fashion and design goods: Class 3, Class 25, and Class 35. This system has been used in the US since the 19th Century; there are 45 categories to differentiate different types of products.If your brand falls into one of these classes, it protects your brand from the likelihood of confusion but not from design copying. 

Class 25 United States Patent and Trademark Office

Trademark Class 25 includes: Sport caps and hats and headwear (shower caps, berets, skull caps, etc.), Clothing (all kinds of clothing, jackets, gloves, dresses, vests, etc.), footwear (sports shoes, sandals, wooden shoes, etc)

Class 35 United States Patent and Trademark Office

Trademark Class 35 includes: Advertising, marketing and promotional services, public relations, product demonstrations, trade show and exhibition services, Provision of advertising space, time and media, Distribution of advertising, marketing, and promotional material, Advertising, marketing and promotional consultancy, Commercial trading and consumer information services, Retail and wholesale store services, Auctioneering services, Rental of vending machines, Business management and administration assistance, Accountancy, bookkeeping, auditing, Data processing, Human resources management and recruitment services, Clerical services, Business consultancy and advisory services, Rental of office machinery and equipment, Business analysis, research, and information services, Market research, Collection and systematization of written communications and data.

Class 3 United States Patent and Trademark Office

Trademark Class 3 includes: Cosmetics and personal care (Skincare, Make-Up, hair care, deodorants), cleaning preparations (surface cleaners, polishing products, fabric bleaches, etc.), Perfumery and Fragrances (Perfumes, essential oils, body mists, etc.), oral and hygiene products (tooth pastes, soaps, dental cleaning, etc)Likelihood of confusion

Likelihood of confusion is a key method in trademark law in the US which finds out if customers would confuse a product that is accused of being copied with the actual product. If a court finds that there is likelihood of confusion, it may decide that trademark infringement has occurred. 

The Polaroid factors

The U.S. Court of Appeals uses the Polaroid Factors to assess the likelihood of confusion between two products; these are as follows…

1.Similarity of the marks: Courts consider the overall similarity between the trademarks,How similar the marks are in meaning, sound, and appearance.

2.Similarity of the goods: Is there overlap in the products which are being sold? This increases the likelihood of confusion.

3.Evidence of actual confusion: In this factor, courts consider if people have already mistaken the goods for the other one. 

4.Overlap in marketing channels: Selling through the same online pages or stores (for example, Sephora) increases the chances of people mistaking one brand for another. 

5.Sophistication of the consumers in the actual market: Courts consider how careful and sophisticated an average buyer of the product is; sophisticated buyers are less likely to confuse two different products.

6.Quality of the defendant’s products: If the allegedly copied product is of poor quality, because it can harm the original brand. 

7.Intent of alleged infringer: For this factor, the court considers whether the defendant’s mark attempted to mimic another brand or if they adopted a trademark in good faith.

8.Strength of the mark: The more well-known the original brand is, the more legal protection it receives. 

What happens if a product is actually copied? 

The penalties vary significantly, spanning from mild sanctions like trademark takedowns or storefront bans to more severe cases with consequences such as attorney fees or prison time. 

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this article, unfortunately I wasn’t able to put the whole trademark law into one article, but I encourage everyone to do their own research on this topic if you’re interested in a part which I haven’t covered. It’s very hard to fully protect a product, especially for a start-up in the industry, but I’m certain that it’s very important to make sure no one steals amazing ideas!

Sephora: A large French chain of cosmetic stores. 1.95 billion USD profit in 2025 by offering skincare, makeup, perfume and hairproducts. How does this impressive beauty subsidiary work? Who owns it and what is the concept behind the cosmetic giant?  

I walk in a city; suddenly I see black and white stripes next to a sliding door. 

A few seconds later I’m walking through the door into the beauty paradise. Sephora. The store is filled with many lights, odors, people, and colors. I eventually find myself walking through the store, maybe buying something, but in my head I’m thinking, What is Sephora? How does it work? And why do all the trendy, popular beauty brands sell their products here? 

I’ve had this experience many, many times in different cities now, but I’ve never had the time to find the answers. So here is my Sephora enlightenment.

History and success:

Sephora is a cosmetic chain with over 2,700 stores in 35 countries. The beauty giant was introduced in Paris in August 1970; it was originally founded by Dominique Mandonnaud, a French perfumer and businessman whose innovative idea was “open sell.” He moved products to open shelves and encouraged customers to try products without the pressure to buy them. He moved market adversaries into one layout. The primarily female customers had the option to try and compare similar beauty products by different brands.

Dominique Mandonnaud expanded his brand through the 90s and opened his first flagship store at Champs-Élysées in 1997. Later that year, in July 1997, Dominique Mandonnaud and his partners sold Sephora to the giant luxury goods company LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy). LVMH included cosmetics and beauty products in Sephora’s range and expanded the stores globally.

In 1999 sephora.com started to sell their products online; it was the debut of their online website. Approximately 11 years later in 2010, Sephora launched their mobile app.

Since LVMH acquired Sephora for 262 million USD  29 years ago; they have now expanded it to a 16 billion USD global beauty chain, which is a magnificent growth. 

What is the selling concept of Sephora, and how does it work?

Sephora mainly sells products of popular beauty brands, which often aren’t owned by LVMH.Sephora does have their own collection, which had its debut in 2002 and is very successful in their stores. Despite that, other brands like Rhode, Sol de Janeiro, Rare Beauty, Summer Fridays, and many more are the bestsellers that have been promoted through Sephora. 

It’s a common way that beauty founders first launch their brand, and if it’s lucrative, they eventually start selling in Sephora.

The business model Sephora uses is called concession retailing. Concession retailing is a business arrangement where a brand has a section in a bigger store, often known as a shop-in-shop model. Sephora also works by this model. Many successful, trendy, and viral

beauty brands sell their products inside a larger Sephora store. Usually every brand has their own shelf or section. This makes it easy for customers to find the best products because they have the option to compare and try their favorite products within a short time. Brands selling their products through Sephora receive the wholesale price, which usually is between 40-60% of the retail price. It’s still worth it for brands to have their products represented at Sephora because then you’re automatically represented in many, many stores and exhibited to many, many people.

Why the concept works:

Sephora works so well because the world’s best and most prestigious beauty brands resell their products there. As a customer, you have access to all these distinguished brands in one store right next to each other. You have the opportunity to compare them and decide which one is the right match for you. The business model is called concession retailing or shop-in-shop selling. Brands get a wholesale price, which is around 50% of the retail price. It’s usually a win for every brand if their products are represented in Sephora, and so is it for Sephora itself. If a popular brand makes its debut at Sephora, this often attracts  more patrons, which is a huge advantage for Sephora too because the new customers are likely to buy other Sephora products. 

I really hope you’ve learned more about the beauty giant Sephora. I certainly did and will look at Sephora through different eyes. 

The world produces 92 tons of textile waste, every year. And the textile production is responsible for 20% of global clean water pollution. But what part of the textile industry is responsible for most of  these numbers? The answer is fast fashion. A sophisticated macro economics fashion model which is extremely successful but extremely harming for our world. 

Fast Fashion Business Explained:

Fast Fashion is a business model that quickly produces cheap clothes to replicate the newest trends. The apparel industry is a dynamic business with lots of demand changes. It is almost impossible to forecast the trends and demands for next season. Instead of making 2-4 collection each year fast fashion brands produce up to 40 collections. This is a very attractive strategy for customers because there’s a continuously refreshed selection.

The business model has changed the fashion industry forever by creating an efficient supply chain. It only takes fast fashion brands 10-15 days to create a new collection. These brands often outperform non fast fashion brands because of the low prices, fast supply chain agility and real time trend replication. 

This might sound like a good strategy and it’s true fast fashion brands are very successful. But if you look closer to the consequences of this business model you will see that the environment incurs an ecological cost. 

The Fast Fashion Industry produces more CO2 than the international aviation and shipping industry combined. 80% of apparel is produced by women between 18-24, but there are also child workers who are working for the fast fashion industry. Fast Fashion is a huge problem for the environment, the number of times a clothing piece is worn decreases every year. 

So why do people wear it?

The consequences of fast fashion are dreadful but for the customers there are numerous benefits. 

At the time a clothing piece would be damaged, no one cares anymore because theres already a new trend. Which of course the fast fashion brand has first in the store so you can buy it again wear it for some weeks until there is a new trend. And adding to that it’s very cheap you get multiple pieces that are in the trend for the price you can get one clothing piece by a non fast fashion brand thats out of style anyways. 

–Low Prices: Fast Fashion clothes are often produced in Bangladesh, Vietnam, China in these countries workers are often underpaid and work many, many hours under bad

conditions. Brands use cheap materials like polyester or nylon to produce the clothes, they often contain plastic, the clothes are woven thin and poorly which makes the clothes cheap but worn out fast. 

–Trends: Trends change fast – so does fast fashion, the main goal of fast fashion is to always have the latest trends on the clothes hangers. And the ultimate aim of style conscious customers is to maintain trendy clothes thor wardrobe . If you’re looking  for the clothes everyone is wearing online and you can only find them in the stores of fast fashion chains you are very likely to buy them. In the end the you’ve got what you’ve wanted, and the brand is rewarded too for producing the newest trends in a fast time.

–Social Media: Social Media is a primary engine driving fast fashion today. In-App “shop-now” buttons are very common and support fast fashion. The build in “shop now” buttons allow the customers to acquire garments within seconds.

The fast fashion industry we see seems perfect, but it’s important to be aware of the disadvantages  of the fast fashion business model. 

How can we change it:

I’d like to end this article with suggestions on how to address the issue.

Change your shopping style: 

No one has to stop shopping for clothes but you can be more careful with choosing which fashion brands you support. Look at the price tag and think about if it’s possible to create a good clothing piece at this price. See where it was produced and check if it was sewed well. 

There are also websites like https://directory.goodonyou.eco/ and https://fashionchecker.org/brand-profile.html?q=7217 where you can check if the brand you’re buying from is good and if the workers get paid well. But please be careful and don’t believe everything these checkers say they tend to answer very negative. 

Shopping alternatives:

The easiest thing to do against fast fashion is stop buying and start supporting slow fashion. However it is clear that slow fashion often is more expensive or probably just has fair prices, which has its justified reasons so there are many, many other alternatives. A trendy, cheap and environment friendly solution could be buying vintages respectively second handclothes. The second hand appel market has grown 21 Billion Dollar since 2019, thrifting is a massive global trend that gives you the option to fight fast fashion and buy affordable high quality clothes.

Change it yourself:

If you really want to contend with fast fashion you could organise clothes trading events, sell you own clothes online, start sewing clothes with eco-friendly materials or write articles about the consequences of fast fashion and what to do to stop it.

I hope you have developed a deeper understanding of the fast fashion industry and its disadvantages. I’m certain there will be many more eco-friendly fashion options in the future.

School is an important part of most teenagers’ lives; we spend most of our time there, make most of our friends there, and make lots of (hopefully positive) memories there. Because we are in school through all different seasons, weather, situations, and phases of our lives, clothes play an important role. In many countries, school uniforms are mandatory; in many others, dress codes exist. These dressing restrictions are often criticized by students, but are there also advantages of a school uniform? Do they maybe even help students? Or does the limited choice of clothing damage the students’ character?

School Uniforms:

School uniforms are usually a matching set of clothes worn by all the pupils of a certain educational institute. A school uniform requires exact clothes to wear every day, and you can’t choose whether you like it or not. There’s a huge difference between a school uniform and a dress code. A dress code bans certain types of clothing, and a school uniform only allows certain types. How a school uniform looks is different from school to school and especially from country to country and continent to continent.

The exact date of inception of school uniforms remains uncertain, but it is believed that they were first worn around the 16th century in the United Kingdom at the Christ’s Hospital boarding school. Students were given a long blue coat and yellow and blue socks. In the 19th century, school uniforms became more common in the British Empire; nowadays they are still mandatory in most British private and public schools.

In this day and age, school uniforms are widespread in Africa, Asia, Oceania, and South America but are infrequent in the US, Europe, and Canada. Every country and every school has its very own style of school uniforms, but here are the most iconic and important ones.

-Japan is famous for their iconic sailor suit school uniforms; they’re known as “seifuku.” Girls are usually wearing a traditional naval-style flat collar, a tailored blazers with a over button-down shirts and plaid skirts. For boys, the uniform includes either a military jacket and trousers or a modern blazer with a shirt, tie, and trousers.

-The United Kingdom is the origin of school uniforms; their, often traditional matching sets are mandatory at most schools. They usually involve a blazer, polo shirt, and trousers or a pleated skirt.

-A very interesting example of how special and important a school uniform can be is the Australian SunSmart School Program. The Australian Cancer Council launched its SunSmart School Programme in 1994. Because Australia has the highest skin cancer rate in the world, their school uniforms are built to protect the pupils from the strong sun down under. An Australian school uniform requires special design features like a broad-brim hat, fabrics with UPF 50+, long sleeves, and many more to protect the students from the harsh sun. uniforms are usually a matching set of clothes worn by all the pupils of a certain education institute. 

Pros and cons of a school uniform 

An important part of the history of school clothing was in 1996 when Bill Clinton said, “If it means that teenagers will stop killing each other over designer jackets, then our public schools should be able to require their students to wear uniforms.” He raised an important point for the supporters of school uniforms in this speech. Due to the fact that it’s very common for students to compare themselves through fashion, clothing, and looks, a school uniform can counteract pupils being bullied for feeling unrelated because they don’t own the trendiest clothes.

Here are the most important pros and cons about wearing or not wearing a school uniform:

+Equality in clothing: When a school uniform is mandatory, pupils can focus on their education and make friends based on who the people really are and not by what they wear. No one gets excluded because of the clothes they are wearing; no one has a reason to be ashamed whether they can afford trendy clothes or not. School is about learning and learning only. 

+Safety: A school uniform can increase the safety of the students; providing all students wear the same clothes, a non-member can be identified quickly. During school trips, pupils and pedestrians can be distinguished easily. 

+Clear dress codes: It’s easy for the pupils and teachers to understand the dress code; there is no space for discussions or negotiations. The rules are clear: if the students don’t wear their school’s uniform, they violate the dress code. There’s no leeway about dressing. Strict rules and simplicity can provide an anchor in life.

-Limit Self-Expression: Teenagers in high school often need to express their feelings through clothing. It’s a simple way to show how you feel and what you like. 

It’s important to focus on education during school; however, fashion—what you wear—can lead to interesting and positive conversations. It forces kids to go along with the tide instead of building their own personality or representing their culture through fashion.

-Financial Burden: Even though the biggest advantage of a school uniform is kids not being differentiated by how much money they have, school uniforms can be a financial burden to low-income families if you consider the cost of school uniforms reaching as high as 500 USD per year.

After considering the baseline questions and the research I’ve done, school uniforms can be worth it because they give teenagers stability in a hectic life where you often get judged for everything you do or wear. In the best case, it can give pupils firmness during school and allow them to focus on their education. At my school, we do not have a school uniform; unfortunately, I can’t tell what it actually feels like. But I sometimes get the feeling that my peers feel a big pressure to look good, wear nice clothes, and always be dressed appropriately for every occasion. If everyone cares so much about their looks, the urge to be dressed best gets quite intense. I’ve seen many people freshen up their hair and refine their clothes during breaks or even throughout class.

I hope this article has provoked your thoughts about the topic. I’ll certainly think about the clothes I wear to school differently.