Intellectual Property co-chair Amy Goldsmith authored an article featured in Law360 titled, “Copyright Protection For Jewelry Seems Tangled.” In the article, Amy discusses registering copyrights for jewelry, which has become increasingly difficult based on recent trends in the U.S. Copyright Office.

“Without copyright registration,” Amy explains, “jewelry designers must evaluate whether their pieces are protectable under a trade dress theory, but that is a much more nuanced argument to make. Copiers and social media may ignore the trade dress argument — leaving the damaging infringements available for sale, littering the social media landscape, and diminishing the value of the original pieces.”

Amy goes on to say that the U.S. Copyright Office’s current interpretation of originality and creativity in jewelry design is “tangling copyright protection for jewelry. Armed with this information, jewelry designers may look at the process of design through a new lens — the ability of the jewelry to achieve copyright registration.”

Read the full article.