Conditions for the protection of fashion designs under design law

This study aims to reveal how fashion designs are protected within the framework of intellectual and industrial property law, particularly under design law, at both national and international levels. Due to the dynamic structure of the fashion industry, rapidly changing trends, and the high risk of imitation, design protection holds a special significance in contemporary legal systems. In the first section of the thesis, the concept of fashion is evaluated within a historical process, and the evolution of fashion in cultural, social, and economic contexts is presented. The second section provides a detailed examination of how fashion designs are protected under Turkish law, with a focus on the design law provisions of Industrial Property Code No. 6769 and the relevant legislation. The protection of registered and unregistered design rights is analyzed, and intersections between design rights, copyright protection, and unfair competition provisions are also addressed. In the third section, the legislation of the European Union is examined, followed by a discussion of the protection of fashion designs in the legal systems of France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The specific regulations, case law, and systematic approaches related to design law in each country are comparatively analyzed. In particular, the relationship between copyright and design in France, the unregistered design systems in the UK, and the implementation of design patents in the United States are evaluated with reference to case decisions. In the final section, these four legal systems are compared to identify the strengths and weaknesses of Turkish law.