Design Law in the United States as Compared to the European Community Design System: What Do We Need to Fix?

Now in their tenth year, European community designs were created to enhance harmonization in design protection across the Member States of the European Union (“EU”). The United States (“US”), in contrast, has only once expanded its protection for designs during that time, namely for vessel designs. Pushes have been made for further sui generis protection for Fashion law, but it is unclear why the US has not adopted a system similar to that of Europe, particularly taking into consideration the general uniformity between the two regions’ systems in other intellectual property areas. This Note looks to answer that question by investigating the nature of US protection of industrial designs, while comparing it to the European system