Intellectual Property, Sustainability, and the Circular Economy: Friends or Foes in the Fashion Industry?

Document Type

Book Section

Publication Date

2-2025

ISBN

9780198938897

DOI

10.1093/law/9780198938897.003.0005

Abstract

This chapter addresses the relationship between the traditional intellectual property (IP) system and the need to promote a sustainable and circular fashion industry. Notably, it criticizes the industry’s environmental impact and highlights how the enforcement of IP rights often hampers or flatly prevents third parties from engaging in practices that promote sustainability and circularity. In particular, this chapter reviews four practices focusing on waste reduction and resource efficiency, namely: (1) reusing, through reselling or renting, fashion items; (2) repairing products to their original appearance; (3) upcycling old products into new, appealing fashion items; and (4) recycling existing products to create new materials or product parts. For each of these practices, the chapter underlines the issues and obstacles that the traditional IP framework presents. The chapter concludes that IP laws can still operate as barriers to a sustainable and circular fashion industry. However, it also highlights several existing limitations and exceptions to IP rights that can be used to overcome these barriers and advocates that IP lawyers and the courts use them more effectively to promote a better fashion industry.

First Page

89

Last Page

114

Num Pages

26

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Editor

Eleonora Rosati & Irene Calboli

Book Title

The Handbook of Fashion Law

Link to Full Text
Buy This Book

Share

COinS