Tuesday, 13 October 2026Sign inSubscribe
Strategist’s Cut

An editorial on modern power, brand behaviour, intellectual property, and market architecture.

Estd 2026

Law

Who Owns a Silhouette? Trade Dress and the Limits of Fashion IP

You can protect a logo. Protecting a shape is a much harder argument.

A paper-cut silhouette portrait of a woman in profile inside an oval frame
[Paper Silhouette Portrait of a Woman], Unknown, 1840s–50s · The Met, Open Access (CC0)

A silhouette cut from paper can capture a person in a single outline. Fashion houses would love to own their outlines just as completely. The law is more reluctant.

Three tools, three limits

  • Trade marks protect signs of origin: logos, names, sometimes distinctive shapes.
  • Design rights can protect the appearance of a product, for a limited period.
  • Copyright may protect original artistic elements, such as a print.
A Renaissance engraving of an allegory of Fortune and Justice
Fortune and Justice: the two forces every intellectual property dispute eventually meets.Allegory of Fortuna and Justice, Monogrammist HC, 1534 · The Met, Open Access (CC0)

This article is general commentary and is not legal advice.

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