L.A. County Bar Takes on Design Copyright Debate

The Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Intellectual Property and Entertainment Law section and the International Association of Entertainment Lawyers will tackle the issue of emerging intellectual-property issues in the fashion industry during its “Hot Off the Runway!” seminar. The networking event and panel discussion will take place May 1 at the Luxe Summit Hotel in Los Angeles’ Bel-Air neighborhood.

Panelists will discuss the scope of copyright and trademark protection for fashion designs and styles. Topics will include issues regarding rights in brands, the tension between protecting creativity in fashion and allowing more freedom to copy as a way of benefiting consumers, the pros and cons of the pending Design Piracy Prohibition Act, online sales of counterfeit products, and other emerging intellectual-property issues in the fashion industry.

Scheduled speakers include Ilse Metchek, the California Fashion Association’s executive director; Los Angeles attorney David Erickson, whose fashion designer clients include Libertine, Magda Berliner, Suzanne Costas Friewald (founder of Earl Jean), Spring & Clifton, Jasmin Shokrian, Wren, Trasteverine and Cheyann Benedict (co-founder of C&C California); copyright litigator Robert F. Helfing of the Sedgwick, Detert Moran LLP firm; independent designer Rami Kashou; and French attorney Anne-Marie Pecoraro, a member of the International Association of Entertainment Lawyers and an established European fashion lawyer.

For more information, call (213) 896-6560.

—Erin Barajas