I'm showing my new collection to a few buyers before the launch. Does that already count as disclosure?

Not if you show the collection in confidence. Under the EU Design Regulation, a design is not deemed to have been made available to the public merely because it has been disclosed to a third party under explicit or implicit conditions of confidentiality (Article 7(1) and Article 11(2)). Implicit confidentiality is hard to prove afterwards. A non-disclosure agreement or a line in the invitation to a private showroom appointment puts it on record. If you show the collection without such a condition, for example at an open trade fair, the twelve-month grace period for a filing starts running. From that moment the three years of the unregistered EU design also start.

Can I copy another brand's design if I put my own label in it?

Putting your own label in it changes nothing as far as copyright goes. Since the Court of Justice of the EU’s judgment in Mio/konektra of 4 December 2025, you infringe as soon as creative elements of the original are recognisably reproduced in your product, even if the overall impression differs. If the other brand has registered the design, the test is whether your version produces a different overall impression on the informed user. A different logo rarely makes that difference. Only under slavish imitation (slaafse nabootsing), the route when no intellectual property right protects the design, can a clearly distinct label count, because there the question is whether the public is confused.

Protecting a clothing design

Protecting a clothing design starts with the first post on Instagram. From that moment the clock is running. After twelve months it’s too late to register, because your own post then counts against the novelty of the design. At Liaise we help designers and labels choose which right to rely on: copyright, design law or the unregistered EU design. If a design doesn’t qualify for any of them, we tell you that too.

Not sure whether your new collection is protected, or have you already spotted a copy? Call 020 675 88 21 or get in touch. Response within one working day.

Which right protects a clothing design, and from when

A clothing design can be protected at the same time by copyright, a registered design and the unregistered EU design, which lasts three years from first disclosure in the EU and only protects against copying. They differ mainly in how long they last.

Copyright arises as soon as the design exists in a perceptible form, even if it is still a sketch. No registration is needed. It runs until seventy years after the year in which the designer dies (Article 37 of the Dutch Copyright Act).

The unregistered EU design also comes without registration. The three years start on the day the design is first made available to the public within the EU (Article 11(1) of the EU Design Regulation, Regulation (EC) No 6/2002).

A registered design lasts five years and can be renewed up to 25 years (Article 3.14 BCIP, Article 12 of the EU Design Regulation). You can file it as a Benelux design with the BOIP or as an EU design with the EUIPO. For a seasonal piece, three years is sometimes enough. A coat that stays in the collection for ten years deserves a filing.

Copyright in clothing after the Mio/konektra judgment

The Dutch Copyright Act expressly names works of applied art as protected works (Article 10(1)(11)). On 4 December 2025 the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in Mio/konektra that no stricter requirements apply to such works than to other works, not even because the design can also be protected by design law. A dress is not a second-class work.

The Court asks whether the design reflects the designer’s personality through free and creative choices. A choice dictated by technique or fit doesn’t count. Your intentions and sources of inspiration may be taken into account, as may recognition in the industry, but according to the Court they are not decisive.

For infringement, the judgment asks whether creative elements of your design have been reproduced in a recognisable way. It expressly calls it irrelevant whether the other piece produces the same overall impression. A similar mood is not enough. How copyright works more generally is set out on its own page.

Registering a clothing design with the BOIP or EUIPO

Design law protects the appearance of a product. For clothing, that can be the cut, an embroidery or the combination of fabrics. The law also names texture and materials (Article 3.1 BCIP). The clothing design must be new and have individual character.

With a filing you can act against any product that does not produce a different overall impression on the informed user (Article 3.16(1) BCIP, Article 10 of the EU Design Regulation). Knowledge of your design is not required for this. That’s the big difference with the unregistered EU design, which only works against copying.

A piece you’ve already shown can still be filed within twelve months (Article 3.3(4) BCIP). For an EU design, that period also covers an earlier version that does not differ in overall impression from the design you file (Article 7(2) of the EU Design Regulation). A small change after the show is therefore not a problem. A Benelux design only works in the Benelux, an EU design across the EU. How filing works and what it costs is explained under design law.

The unregistered EU design: proving your design came first

The unregistered EU design protects against copying for three years, without a filing. The right arises when you disclose the design in such a way that the circles specialised in the fashion sector operating within the EU could reasonably have become aware of it in the normal course of business (Article 11(2) of the EU Design Regulation). A post can be enough.

In a dispute, the question is whether the other party knew your design. If a designer arrived at something similar independently and could not reasonably have known of your design, there is no infringement (Article 19(4) of the EU Design Regulation). That defence gets harder the better you can show where and when your design could be seen.

So keep the invitation to the showroom, the first post with its timestamp and the first buyer’s order, because without a date proof is hard.

Inspiration or imitation: where the line lies in clothing

Fashion runs on inspiration, so after every round of trade fairs there are pieces in the shops that look suspiciously alike. Yet the industry still believes the myth of the seven differences: change enough details and you’re legally safe. That myth is wrong.

For copyright, the number of differences doesn’t count. If the creative choices of the original come back in a recognisable way, it doesn’t help that the rest of the design is different. A trend, a style or an idea is free, because only a worked-out design can be protected.

Two shoes show how differently that can turn out. On 20 February 2025 the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) refused copyright protection for Birkenstock’s sandals (I ZR 16/24), because it had not been shown that the shape was more than craftsmanship. In Denmark, Ganni did obtain protection for its buckle ballerina. On 17 March 2025 the Eastern High Court (Østre Landsret) upheld the ban on Steve Madden selling a similar shoe in Denmark. Since Mio/konektra the same test applies across the EU, but the outcome still differs from design to design.

In design law, the question is the overall impression on the informed user, with the court taking into account the freedom the designer had (Article 3.16(1) BCIP). If a shape is largely dictated by its function, that freedom is small. Think of the pockets on a pair of work trousers.

So use another brand’s piece as a starting point, not an end point. Look closely at what you take. A collar or a length is not the same as a print or a combination of details that makes that brand recognisable. Record your own process with moodboards, sketches and emails with your factory, always dated. How the line was drawn in a Dutch case is set out in our article on Colourful Rebel’s jumpers.

Slavish imitation only protects a fashion design where there is a risk of confusion

If a design falls outside copyright and design law, slavish imitation (slaafse nabootsing) remains. That isn’t a right in the design itself but a form of tort (Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code). Imitation is in principle free.

According to the Supreme Court of the Netherlands (Hoge Raad), it becomes unlawful if the public is likely to confuse the two products and the imitator does not do what is reasonably possible and necessary to avoid that (Supreme Court, 19 May 2017, ECLI:NL:HR:2017:938). Your product must have its own distinctive identity on the market for this. The kind of product counts, as does the number of similar pieces already on sale. With a black roll-neck jumper, that rarely works.

That distinctive identity isn’t permanent, because it can disappear if the market fills up with similar pieces. The court looks at the overall impression on a not particularly attentive buying public that usually doesn’t see both products side by side.

How a lawyer helps you protect a clothing design

With a new collection, we look at which clothing designs are worth filing and which can manage with the unregistered EU design. We also arrange the rights to the work of freelance designers. If you have a freelancer design a collection for production, under Benelux design law you are in principle regarded as the designer yourself and you also get the copyright (Articles 3.8(2) and 3.29 BCIP). The EU Design Regulation has no such rule, so put it in writing as explained under assigning copyright.

If you spot a copy, it usually starts with a cease-and-desist letter. How design, trade marks and contracts fit together in fashion is explained under fashion law.

Want to know how strong your design is? Get in touch or call 020 675 88 21. Response within one working day.