Ritu Kumar; one
of the most popular designers in India is an early bird in the fashion
industry. She is well known for her traditional designs with modern outlook.
Usually, her design consists of exclusive Indian wear. Recently, the Label Ritu Kumar has
launched its first-ever active wear/Athleisure.
The Oxford
dictionary defines active
wear as “clothing designed to be worn for sports, exercise, and outdoor
activities” and Athleisure is defined as
“a style of clothing that is comfortable and suitable for doing sports,
but also fashionable and attractive enough to wear for
other activities”
Ritu Kumar’s Active
wear is a colourful collection of outfits displaying vibrant and intrinsic
patterns in eye pleasing and distinct colour combinations. It’s a celebration of Indian traditional
prints and patterns and a mind blowing
innovation in the space of Athleisure.
The last few decades saw an upsurge in the health
and fitness industry. The awareness on health and fitness among people has increased
dramatically resulting in the emergence of a whole new fitness trend and
fashion. People are spoilt for choices when it comes to choosing a fitness
activity they could enroll themselves in to.
The list is endless with Yoga, Gym, Zumba, Aerobics,
Pilates, Taekwondo, Rock climbing being some of the popular fitness activities and
the list can also include dance and martial arts as fitness options. Further, the boom contributed to the growth of
many other sectors leading to a heap of inventions and innovations. New
products under new brands and enterprises emerged to supply to the ever growing
demands. These products ranged from smart watches to health apps to fitness
equipment, gym equipment and most importantly Athleisure or fashionable active
wear. Currently, there is an ever-growing
demand for active wear and fitness has become an active pursuit of many. Different kind of fashionable active wear are being
sported and endorsed by celebrities. There are a thousand pictures surfing in
social media of celebrities sporting fashionable gym wear from different
brands.
Well! Make hay while sun shines is something that we have been thought to observe since time immemorial. With the ground being fertile, there has been an emergence of domestic brands in Athleisure.
Needless to mention, that the well-known label Ritu Kumar has taken the plunge at the right time with their Athleisure collection to monetise their intellectual property. Niche active wear brands are emerging to capture the market not just in India, but also globally with their interesting designs on their attires. The design on the attires is 2D designs. They make the attire attractive and it is what appeals to the eye and becomes the selling point. Design plays a major role to have an edge in the market.
Ritu Kumar with her out of the box thought process has come up with this active wear
with attractive & colourful designs. I was thoroughly taken by surprise with the
idea of how the brand has interestingly combined two unusual factors to come
with something new. These are creations of mind and an intellectual property. This Athleisure collection is subject matter
of industrial designs. The intellectual property is not in the outfits; Active
wear is retailed by different brands but it’s in the designs and that is the exclusive
intellectual property that is not available with any other brand.
In
this background it is very important to understand what an industrial
design is and why is it important to protect one’s industrial designs.
What is an
industrial design?
In a legal
sense, an industrial design constitutes the ornamental aspect of an article.
An industrial
design may consist of three dimensional features, such as the shape of an
article, or two dimensional features, such as patterns, lines or colour.
Industrial
designs are applied to a wide variety of products of industry and handicraft
items: from packages and containers to furnishing and household goods, from
lighting equipment to jewellery, and from electronic devices to textiles.
Industrial designs may also be relevant to graphic symbols, graphical user
interfaces (GUI), and logos.
Counterfeiting
is a major treat, therefore it is important to protect one intellectual
property
Industrial
design needs to be registered in order to be protected under industrial design
law as a “registered design”.
The owner of a
registered industrial design has the right to prevent third parties from
making, selling or importing articles bearing or embodying a design which is a
copy, or substantially a copy, of the protected design, when such acts are
undertaken for commercial purposes.
Depending on
the particular national law and the kind of design, industrial designs may also
be protected as works of art under copyright law.
In my upcoming posts we shall discuss another
interesting topic on IPR.
