3D printed ‘Spider Dress’

The 3D printed ‘Spider Dress’ is the latest example of the robotic fashion. This dress is the creativity of engineer and designer Anouk Wipprecht and is connected to an Intel Edison.

‘Spider Dress’ is a master piece of wearable technology that combines 3D printing with animatronic mechanics. A series of skeletal-like limbs "respond to external stimuli" as per configuration proximity and respiration sensors, meant to "defend the personal space of the wearer." It transforms itself as per the mood, level of aggression, heart beat and stress level.

It is still in the testing phase, and will make its debut next week Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

-Shambhavi Mishra

Facebook's new policies

The modifications made by Facebook in the statement of Rights and Responsibilities, forms the foundation to understand the ownership of the content of that you upload on Facebook. Facebook, being a social networking site, has become the sharing centre for people across the globe.

The social networking giant does not take the ownership of the content and information posted. The person who is posting  and uploading is the rightful owner and the visibility depends on the privacy and application settings .

Facebook is granted, as per the privacy and application settings, non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any content that is covered by Intellectual Property rights that you post in connection with Facebook. The condition is terminated once the content is deleted unless the content has been shared with others and they have not deleted it.

A person may contact the individual who has infringed copyright or trademark before complaining and filing out the form. A person having a Facebook account or a person having no Facebook account can also file copyright infringement. Report can be filed against third party made apps as Facebook does control the content made available through those apps.

-Shambhavi Mishra

Overlapping of Intellectual Property Rights

In the case of Mukul Goyal v. Union of India and Ors., Section 15(2) of the Copyright Act has been brought under the scanner and has been contended by the petitioner to be ultra vires. As per Section 15(2), any artistic piece that is capable of being registered as a design, but has not so been registered, will lose its copyright protection the moment it has been reproduced more than 50 times. The petitioner has contended that S. 15(2) and 2(d) infringes his right to carry out his trade under Article 19(1)(g). Also Article 14 is violated as S. 15 imposes arbitrary restriction and the number of reproductions-50, is without any rationality.

As per Microfibres v. Giridhar, copyrighted artistic works simpliciter would not be hit by S. 15)2) while design works would be hit. This results in ambiguity due to overlapping Intellectual Rights. 

One solution can be to protect the original designs as artistic works under copyright law and amending the Copyright Act to ensure that any artistic work produced industrially more than 50 times is granted protection for only 15 years.

-Shambhavi Mishra

4D Dress Made: Scope of Intellectual Property Widens

Rosenkrantz and Jesse Louis-Rosenberg of Massachusetts Institute of Technology are the people behind the creation of the 4D Designer Dress. The Dress has just been added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It costs $ 3000 and may never be worn considering the complex and intricate procedure to design it.

The project is related to web application-Kinematics. To make the Dress, the designers took a 3D scan of the model’s body. Their design studio, Nervous System, is at the forefront of a movement that uses software to mimic processes and patterns found in nature.

The Kinematics concept was developed as a project for Google. Even Apple is expected to announce Design collaborations with luxury brands next year.  Iris van Herpen recently introduced clothes inspired by the Large Hadron Collider, the particle accelerator at the Cern laboratory in Switzerland.

Thus, technology companies are leaning towards fashion to glamorise wearable technology and scope of intellectual property further widens.

-Shambhavi Mishra

Revival or Slumber: The Sleeping beauty Brands

Arnaud de Lummen has the successful business of reviving dormant fashion brands and selling them to investors. The Sleeping Beauty brands include Schiaparelli, Vionnet, Moynat and, now, Paul Poiret. The concept behind this is that these fashion brands still retain brand equity which can be used to offer a new product. The investors who are interested in such brands are creative and willing to take risks.

De Lummen confesses that they need to get a bit aggressive while acquiring rights over dormant brands. To relaunch a brand, Intellectual Property portfolio must be clean so that there is no ambiguity. He acknowledges that there is a bit of fashion fatigue or comparison to such brands which had failed earlier.

Such brands much be bought by the very top investors. Unlike Halston, one needs to be patient in earning revenues and increasing sales volume.
Financial backing is also important. Like Bernard Arnault who had acquired rights over Moynat, investors must be far sighted.

If the major luxury conglomerates currently lack the requisites for taking on more such projects, perhaps the era of big brand revivals is over?

-Shambhavi Mishra