Intellectual Property Rights are gaining importance in global fashion industry. Fashion designers frequently complain about their designs being pirated or copied. Plagiarism is a plague and needs to be curbed. Fashion patents provide the creators the sole legal right for their creation, be it a product, a design, or process related to the fashion business. Hence by obtaining a patent on a novel creation, a company/creator can protect its right to its own intellectual property.

Copyright is the protection for an original literary or artistic work. It includes the creative element of fashion design and cannot include the physical functionality. While the article of clothing itself cannot be copyrighted the design of the products can be copyrighted, such as print pattern. Trademarks cover signs, logos, quotes and symbols, and, in the fashion industry, brands. Brands are incredibly important in the field of fashion, and since fashion patents are harder to get fashion companies will go to great lengths to protect their unique brands. For this many fashion companies use trademark protection instead. Trademarks are cheaper and convenient to get as compared to patents and generally take less time to obtain. But unfortunately trademarks cannot protect the entire article/product and can only protect the logo or symbol on that product.