What Is Intellectual Property? A Fashion Brand’s Plain-English Guide

Every fashion brand owns more than it thinks. The name on the label, the print on the fabric, the shape of a heel and the pattern-cutting method in a founder’s notebook can all be property, worth money in a sale, a licence or a lawsuit. This guide answers the question “what is intellectual property?” in plain English, walks through the types of intellectual property a fashion business uses, and gives the official costs and timescales in the US, the UK and the EU as of October 2026.

Short answer: Intellectual property is the set of legal rights that protect creations of the mind: brand names and logos (trade marks), original artwork and prints (copyright), the look of a product (design rights and design patents), inventions (patents) and confidential know-how (trade secrets). Some rights arise automatically; others, such as registered trade marks and designs, must be applied for and paid for.

Key takeaways

• For fashion, the five rights that matter most are trade marks, copyright, design rights or design patents, trade secrets and trade dress.
• Copyright, UK unregistered design right and trade secrets arise automatically; trade marks, registered designs and patents need an application.
• Clothing shapes get little copyright protection in the US after Star Athletica, so registered designs and design patents do much of the work.
• Official filing fees start at $350 per class for a US trade mark, from £205 in the UK and €850 at the EUIPO, before any lawyer’s fees.

What is intellectual property?

The World Intellectual Property Organization defines intellectual property as “creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce.” Its overview of IP lists six main types: patents, copyright, trade marks, industrial designs, geographical indications and trade secrets.

The idea behind all of them is the same. The law gives the creator or owner a limited right to stop others from using something, so that it is worth investing in. That right is territorial: a US trade mark does not protect you in France, and a UK registered design does not protect you in New York. It is also property: you can sell it, license it or lose it by not using or renewing it. IP is the core of fashion law but not the whole of it, a point FLJ develops in is fashion law just intellectual property? and in fashion law vs intellectual property law.

What are the main types of intellectual property?

The table compares the types of intellectual property a fashion brand is most likely to rely on. Durations are the standard terms; fees and details follow in the sections below.

What does a trade mark protect, and what does it cost?

A trade mark protects the signs that tell customers who made the product: the brand name, logo, a distinctive label or tag, and sometimes a colour or a pattern. It does not protect the garment itself. Registration gives the clearest rights, and in all three systems a registration lasts ten years and can be renewed indefinitely.

• United States. The USPTO’s base application fee is $350 per class, with surcharges of $100 for insufficient information and $200 for using free-form text instead of the ID Manual, under the fee schedule effective 19 January 2025. As of 1 October 2026 the USPTO reports an average of 4.3 months to a first examination and 10.4 months to registration or abandonment, according to its processing wait times. Owners must also file a declaration of use between the fifth and sixth years.
• United Kingdom. GOV.UK states that registering a trade mark costs at least £205, rising with the number of classes, and usually takes three to four months if there are no objections.
• European Union. One EU trade mark covers all member states. The EUIPO’s basic online fee is €850 for one class, €50 for the second and €150 for each further class.

Before filing anything, search. Our step-by-step guide on how to run a USPTO trademark search covers the US register and quick EU and UK checks.

Does copyright protect fashion designs?

Partly. Copyright protects original creative expression. In fashion that clearly covers fabric prints, graphics, embroidery artwork, photographs, illustrations and written content. It arises automatically when the work is created, and in the US, UK and EU it generally lasts for the author’s life plus 70 years. In the US you do not need to register to own copyright, but you must register a US work before you can sue, and the US Copyright Office’s online fee is $45 for a single-author single work or $65 for a standard application.

The harder question is the garment itself. Clothes are “useful articles”, and US law protects only the artistic features that can be separated from the useful item. In Star Athletica, L.L.C. v. Varsity Brands, Inc., decided on 22 March 2017 by a 6 to 2 majority, the Supreme Court held that a design feature qualifies if it can be perceived as a two- or three-dimensional work of art separate from the useful article, and would qualify as a protectable pictorial, graphic or sculptural work if imagined separately from it. The stripes, chevrons and colour blocks on Varsity’s cheerleading uniforms passed. The cut and shape of a dress usually will not. FLJ’s full analysis is in Star Athletica v. Varsity Brands. Copyright rules for applied art differ in the UK and the EU, but in all three systems design rights remain the safer tool for shapes.

How do design patents and design rights work?

Design protection covers how a product looks, which makes it the closest thing fashion has to protection for a silhouette, a bag shape, a heel or a piece of hardware.

United States: design patents. A US design patent protects the ornamental design of an article for 15 years from grant (14 years for applications filed before 13 May 2015). It is examined, so it takes time and costs more than a European registration. The USPTO’s large-entity fees are $300 to file, $300 for the search, $700 for examination and $1,300 on issue, a total of $2,600 in official fees, reduced to $1,040 for small entities and $520 for micro entities. FLJ looks at how brands use them in design patents for shoes, bags and hardware.

United Kingdom: registered and unregistered designs. A UK registered design costs from £60 for one design to £185 for up to 50, according to GOV.UK, and lasts five years, renewable in five-year steps to 25 years. Two automatic rights sit alongside it. UK unregistered design right protects the shape and configuration of a three-dimensional product for whichever ends first: 10 years from the end of the year it was first sold or 15 years from the end of the year it was created. The supplementary unregistered design, introduced after Brexit, protects a product’s appearance, including colours, texture and ornamentation, for three years from first disclosure in the UK.

European Union: EU designs. Since the EU design reform took effect on 1 May 2025, the old Community design is called the registered EU design. The EUIPO’s fees start at €350 for the first design and €125 for each additional design in the same application, with protection for five years, renewable to 25. An unregistered EU design protects appearance for three years from first disclosure in the EU, which suits fast seasonal collections but only stops deliberate copying.

What is a trade secret in fashion?

A trade secret is commercially valuable information that is kept confidential with reasonable steps. In fashion that can be a grading system, a dye or finishing recipe, costings, supplier and factory lists, a perfume formula or next season’s line plan. There is no registration and no fixed term: protection lasts as long as the information stays secret, and ends the moment it is published or reverse-engineered lawfully. The US Defend Trade Secrets Act 2016, the EU Trade Secrets Directive (EU) 2016/943 and the UK’s Trade Secrets (Enforcement, etc.) Regulations 2018 all give owners remedies against misappropriation. In practice, it is only as strong as your confidentiality agreements and access controls. FLJ covers the practical side in the role of trade secrets in fashion.

What is trade dress, and what did the Louboutin cases decide?

Trade dress is US shorthand for the overall look of a product or its packaging when that look tells buyers who made it. It is protected under section 43(a) of the Lanham Act whether or not it is registered, but product design trade dress must have acquired distinctiveness, meaning consumers already link it to one source. The UK and EU reach a similar result through registered shape, colour and position marks, and in the UK through the tort of passing off.

Christian Louboutin’s red sole is the best-known fashion example, and it was decided differently on each side of the Atlantic:

• United States, 2012. In Christian Louboutin S.A. v. Yves Saint Laurent America Holding, Inc., decided on 5 September 2012, the Second Circuit held that a single colour can be a trade mark in fashion and that the red sole had acquired secondary meaning, but only where the red sole contrasts with the upper. It ordered the registration limited accordingly, so Yves Saint Laurent’s all-red shoes did not use the mark.
• European Union, 2018. In Christian Louboutin v van Haren Schoenen (C-163/16), decided on 12 June 2018, the Court of Justice ruled that a mark consisting of a colour applied to the sole of a high-heeled shoe does not consist “exclusively of a shape”, so the ground for refusing shape marks did not apply to it.

FLJ explains what both rulings really settled in the Louboutin red sole case, and the wider concept in trade dress in fashion.

Which intellectual property should a new fashion brand protect first?

For most new labels the order is the same. First, clear and register the brand name as a trade mark in the markets where you sell or manufacture, because a name is the one asset you cannot easily change later. Second, keep dated records of original prints and artwork, and register key US works with the Copyright Office if you sell there. Third, for signature shapes, bags, shoes or hardware that will run for several seasons, file registered designs in the UK and EU and consider a US design patent. Fourth, put confidentiality clauses in every contract with freelancers, factories and staff. If you sell abroad, WIPO’s Madrid System for trade marks and Hague System for designs let you extend protection to many countries through one international application.

Frequently asked questions

What is intellectual property in simple terms?

It is legal ownership of things created by the mind rather than physical objects: a brand name, a print, a product design, an invention or secret know-how. The owner can stop others using it without permission, and can sell or license it like other property.

What are the four main types of intellectual property?

The four usually listed are trade marks, copyright, patents and trade secrets. Design rights are often added as a fifth, and for fashion brands they matter as much as patents, because they protect the appearance of garments, bags and shoes.

Can you copyright a clothing design?

You can copyright original prints, graphics and artwork on clothing. In the US, the garment’s shape or cut is generally not protected because clothing is a useful article; Star Athletica (2017) protects only artistic features that can stand alone. Use registered designs or design patents for shapes.

How long does intellectual property protection last?

It depends on the right. Trade marks last 10 years per registration and can be renewed indefinitely. Copyright generally lasts the author’s life plus 70 years. US design patents last 15 years from grant, UK and EU registered designs up to 25 years, and trade secrets as long as they stay secret.

How much does it cost to register a trademark?

Official fees as of October 2026 are $350 per class at the USPTO, from £205 at the UK Intellectual Property Office, and €850 for one class at the EUIPO, plus €50 for a second class. Lawyer’s fees, searches and any opposition costs are extra.

Do I need to register intellectual property to own it?

Not always. Copyright, UK unregistered design right, unregistered EU designs and trade secrets arise automatically. Trade marks can gain some rights through use, but registration gives far stronger, nationwide protection, and patents and registered designs exist only once granted or registered.

This guide gives general information on US, UK and EU intellectual property law and official fees as of October 2026. It is not legal advice. Fees change regularly, so check the relevant office’s website and take professional advice before filing.