Pub Date : 2021-08-01DOI: 10.4337/qmjip.2021.03.00
J. Gibson
{"title":"The thousand-and-second tale of NFTs, as foretold by Edgar Allan Poe","authors":"J. Gibson","doi":"10.4337/qmjip.2021.03.00","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4337/qmjip.2021.03.00","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42155,"journal":{"name":"Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47702308","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-01DOI: 10.4337/qmjip.2021.03.01
K. V. D. Borght, Jian-wei Gao, Xiaoting Song
To recognize an origin-linked production model and the typicity of the products, the European Union (EU) has introduced the Geographical Indication (GI) protection regime. By requiring that relevant production steps must take place in the defined locale, the regime confers exclusive production rights on the local producers. There are two GI categories in the EU. The first is Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), covering products with a qualitative link to both natural and human factors in the designated region. The second is Protected Geographical Indication (PGI), the scope of which overlaps with PDO and covers products that have a qualitative or reputational link with their regional origin. This article examines whether exclusive rights are necessary and appropriate to fulfil their objectives and argues that these rights, when extended to human factors and reputation, cannot always be justified. It is argued that the overlapping scope of the subject matter undermines the ability of these two GI protection categories to provide transparent and trustworthy information for consumers. Finally, this article proposes to redefine the scope of the subject matter and the protection level for PDO and PGI by approaching the product/origin link from a resource utilization, integration and sustainability perspective. *Corresponding author: Jianmei.Gao@vub.be. The research for this article was partially funded by Vrije Universiteit Brussel/China Scholarship Council Joint Scholarship and the National Social Science Fund of China (Grant No. 16 ZDA236).
{"title":"Geographical Indications for agricultural products and foodstuffs in the EU: to what extent does the protection level match the scope of the subject matter?","authors":"K. V. D. Borght, Jian-wei Gao, Xiaoting Song","doi":"10.4337/qmjip.2021.03.01","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4337/qmjip.2021.03.01","url":null,"abstract":"To recognize an origin-linked production model and the typicity of the products, the European Union (EU) has introduced the Geographical Indication (GI) protection regime. By requiring that relevant production steps must take place in the defined locale, the regime confers exclusive production rights on the local producers. There are two GI categories in the EU. The first is Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), covering products with a qualitative link to both natural and human factors in the designated region. The second is Protected Geographical Indication (PGI), the scope of which overlaps with PDO and covers products that have a qualitative or reputational link with their regional origin. This article examines whether exclusive rights are necessary and appropriate to fulfil their objectives and argues that these rights, when extended to human factors and reputation, cannot always be justified. It is argued that the overlapping scope of the subject matter undermines the ability of these two GI protection categories to provide transparent and trustworthy information for consumers. Finally, this article proposes to redefine the scope of the subject matter and the protection level for PDO and PGI by approaching the product/origin link from a resource utilization, integration and sustainability perspective.\u0000\u0000*Corresponding author: Jianmei.Gao@vub.be. The research for this article was partially funded by Vrije Universiteit Brussel/China Scholarship Council Joint Scholarship and the National Social Science Fund of China (Grant No. 16 ZDA236).","PeriodicalId":42155,"journal":{"name":"Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48130996","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-01DOI: 10.4337/qmjip.2021.03.02
Peicheng Wu, C. Weng
The landmark eBay case in the US has noticeably influenced Chinese judicial practices concerning intellectual property injunctions. The injunctive relief in intellectual property infringement cases in China has witnessed a change from a traditional automatic-granting approach to a more equitable approach. However, there are still some issues, namely: the standards of awarding injunctive relief in intellectual property cases are unclear; the civil law tradition and procedure can create issues when applying for injunctions; and the scope of the injunction could be disproportionate in certain cases. In order to address these concerns, China needs to publish judicial interpretations to clarify that the eBay test can be applied to both preliminary injunctions and permanent injunctions. China should further polish up its civil procedure legislation to enable a permanent injunction to be effective immediately, even at the first instance, and to allow the parties to an intellectual property contract to have agreements on conditions of applying for injunctive relief. Additionally, Chinese courts should adopt a proportionate method in determining cases regarding intellectual property injunctions.
{"title":"Old wine in a new bottle? Assessing the injunction remedy for intellectual property disputes in China","authors":"Peicheng Wu, C. Weng","doi":"10.4337/qmjip.2021.03.02","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4337/qmjip.2021.03.02","url":null,"abstract":"The landmark eBay case in the US has noticeably influenced Chinese judicial practices concerning intellectual property injunctions. The injunctive relief in intellectual property infringement cases in China has witnessed a change from a traditional automatic-granting approach to a more equitable approach. However, there are still some issues, namely: the standards of awarding injunctive relief in intellectual property cases are unclear; the civil law tradition and procedure can create issues when applying for injunctions; and the scope of the injunction could be disproportionate in certain cases. In order to address these concerns, China needs to publish judicial interpretations to clarify that the eBay test can be applied to both preliminary injunctions and permanent injunctions. China should further polish up its civil procedure legislation to enable a permanent injunction to be effective immediately, even at the first instance, and to allow the parties to an intellectual property contract to have agreements on conditions of applying for injunctive relief. Additionally, Chinese courts should adopt a proportionate method in determining cases regarding intellectual property injunctions.","PeriodicalId":42155,"journal":{"name":"Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48209123","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-01DOI: 10.4337/qmjip.2021.03.05
Yanan Zhang
Punitive damages were introduced into the intellectual property field in China by legislation permitting their imposition for malicious and serious infringements. This paper offers a comprehensive legal framework of punitive damages regarding trademark infringement and a critical analysis of the application of punitive damages in trademark infringement disputes in Chinese judicial practice. My research reveals that punitive damages have rarely been imposed since the punitive damages provision, Article 63 of the Trademark Law, took effect in 2014, whereas statutory damages have been applied extensively. The reason for this is that there are few guidelines for the application of this provision. The challenges to the application include undefined statutory requirements, difficulties in not only assessing compensation but also providing evidence and determining the multiple of compensation, and an unclear relationship between statutory damages and punitive damages. The 2019 Amendment of the Trademark Law retains these problems. Fortunately, the recently released Judicial Interpretation and typical cases concerning punitive damages contribute to resolving them. Moreover, those cases in which punitive damages have been applied have gradually revealed some basic principles for their application. Reform suggestions are offered in order to stimulate the development of a more thorough and uniform application of the punitive damages provision.
{"title":"Punitive damages in trademark infringement disputes in China: challenges and prospects","authors":"Yanan Zhang","doi":"10.4337/qmjip.2021.03.05","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4337/qmjip.2021.03.05","url":null,"abstract":"Punitive damages were introduced into the intellectual property field in China by legislation permitting their imposition for malicious and serious infringements. This paper offers a comprehensive legal framework of punitive damages regarding trademark infringement and a critical analysis of the application of punitive damages in trademark infringement disputes in Chinese judicial practice. My research reveals that punitive damages have rarely been imposed since the punitive damages provision, Article 63 of the Trademark Law, took effect in 2014, whereas statutory damages have been applied extensively. The reason for this is that there are few guidelines for the application of this provision. The challenges to the application include undefined statutory requirements, difficulties in not only assessing compensation but also providing evidence and determining the multiple of compensation, and an unclear relationship between statutory damages and punitive damages. The 2019 Amendment of the Trademark Law retains these problems. Fortunately, the recently released Judicial Interpretation and typical cases concerning punitive damages contribute to resolving them. Moreover, those cases in which punitive damages have been applied have gradually revealed some basic principles for their application. Reform suggestions are offered in order to stimulate the development of a more thorough and uniform application of the punitive damages provision.","PeriodicalId":42155,"journal":{"name":"Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47108186","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-27DOI: 10.4337/QMJIP.2021.02.05
Muriel Lightbourne
Recent developments in the field of European law, in relation to subject-matter consisting of living material, raise a string of basic issues as to the legal qualification of certain techniques used in agriculture and medicine, such as CRISPR-Cas9, and regarding their appraisal under European patent law. The present article reviews a series of decisions, including the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union in case C-528/16, the decision issued on 7 February 2020 by the French Council of State and the Opinion of the European Patent Office Enlarged Board of Appeal of 14 May 2020 on Referral G 3/19.
{"title":"Mutagenesis, ‘essentially biological processes’ and patent exceptions","authors":"Muriel Lightbourne","doi":"10.4337/QMJIP.2021.02.05","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4337/QMJIP.2021.02.05","url":null,"abstract":"Recent developments in the field of European law, in relation to subject-matter consisting of living material, raise a string of basic issues as to the legal qualification of certain techniques used in agriculture and medicine, such as CRISPR-Cas9, and regarding their appraisal under European patent law. The present article reviews a series of decisions, including the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union in case C-528/16, the decision issued on 7 February 2020 by the French Council of State and the Opinion of the European Patent Office Enlarged Board of Appeal of 14 May 2020 on Referral G 3/19.","PeriodicalId":42155,"journal":{"name":"Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property","volume":"11 1","pages":"219-242"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48872257","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-27DOI: 10.4337/QMJIP.2021.02.03
J. Barrett
Public art galleries have traditionally prohibited visitors from photographing exhibited artworks. Today, however, photography in the gallery is invariably permitted and commonly encouraged, including visitors taking selfies. Copyright law and practice has generally responded to new techniques of reproduction, such as etchings and photographs, and how those technologies are used in commerce and general society. The selfie is a cultural phenomenon that invites re-examination of some areas of copyright law and practice, notably, permitted acts. Has copyright law, in particular freedom of panorama, kept pace with the phenomenon of selfies in the gallery? This article seeks to answer that question and also considers whether the photography policies of leading public galleries present better ways of engaging with the selfie phenomenon than does the current law.
{"title":"Selfies in the public art gallery and copyright permissions","authors":"J. Barrett","doi":"10.4337/QMJIP.2021.02.03","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4337/QMJIP.2021.02.03","url":null,"abstract":"Public art galleries have traditionally prohibited visitors from photographing exhibited artworks. Today, however, photography in the gallery is invariably permitted and commonly encouraged, including visitors taking selfies. Copyright law and practice has generally responded to new techniques of reproduction, such as etchings and photographs, and how those technologies are used in commerce and general society. The selfie is a cultural phenomenon that invites re-examination of some areas of copyright law and practice, notably, permitted acts. Has copyright law, in particular freedom of panorama, kept pace with the phenomenon of selfies in the gallery? This article seeks to answer that question and also considers whether the photography policies of leading public galleries present better ways of engaging with the selfie phenomenon than does the current law.","PeriodicalId":42155,"journal":{"name":"Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property","volume":"11 1","pages":"183-197"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48213442","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-27DOI: 10.4337/QMJIP.2021.02.02
zONGKUI Luo, Fang Wang
The issue of trademark law protection of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is inevitably encountered in the conversion from cultural symbols to commercial marks. Although academic circles are still discussing this, the practice has already begun. This paper investigates the status of the trademark law protection of ICH in China from the perspective of the application and registration data of ICH trademarks. According to a quantitative analysis of 12 123 items of ICH trademark searching data in China, it can be seen that the trademark protection of ICH is not optimistic, the trademark use of ICH symbols is in a disordered state, and many ICH trademark applications may cause distortion, derogation, or dilution to the connotation of the ICH. As a result, excluding trademark squatting by outsiders and decentralized registrations by indigenous peoples, and orderly utilizing of ICH symbols under a collective trademark or a certification trademark, should be determined as the basic goal of trademark law protection of ICH. To achieve this goal, the solution of ‘exclusion plus unified utilization’ should be adopted in practice. According to this plan, indigenous peoples, the trademark office, courts, and the Center of ICH Protection need to collaborate and improve the trademark law protection of ICH through awareness-raising, actions, institutions, and information.
{"title":"From cultural symbols to commercial marks: a quantitative analysis of the trademark law protection of intangible cultural heritage in China","authors":"zONGKUI Luo, Fang Wang","doi":"10.4337/QMJIP.2021.02.02","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4337/QMJIP.2021.02.02","url":null,"abstract":"The issue of trademark law protection of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is inevitably encountered in the conversion from cultural symbols to commercial marks. Although academic circles are still discussing this, the practice has already begun. This paper investigates the status of the trademark law protection of ICH in China from the perspective of the application and registration data of ICH trademarks. According to a quantitative analysis of 12 123 items of ICH trademark searching data in China, it can be seen that the trademark protection of ICH is not optimistic, the trademark use of ICH symbols is in a disordered state, and many ICH trademark applications may cause distortion, derogation, or dilution to the connotation of the ICH. As a result, excluding trademark squatting by outsiders and decentralized registrations by indigenous peoples, and orderly utilizing of ICH symbols under a collective trademark or a certification trademark, should be determined as the basic goal of trademark law protection of ICH. To achieve this goal, the solution of ‘exclusion plus unified utilization’ should be adopted in practice. According to this plan, indigenous peoples, the trademark office, courts, and the Center of ICH Protection need to collaborate and improve the trademark law protection of ICH through awareness-raising, actions, institutions, and information.","PeriodicalId":42155,"journal":{"name":"Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property","volume":"11 1","pages":"158-182"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48396569","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-01DOI: 10.4337/QMJIP.2021.02.01
Phillip Johnson
The introduction of statutory awards for inventors in the Patents Act 1977 was highly controversial. Using original archival sources and parliamentary debates, the political battles that raged both in public and behind the scenes are explored. Central to the policy development was a report by a government appointed Working Party; yet, until now, this report and its recommendations have not been published. The report represents a compromise agreement between representatives of both employers and employees. It was used by the government as the main defence of its policy. Using this report, and the contemporary political discussions, the small number of decisions of the comptroller and the courts will be examined to see if they reflect the balance struck by the Working Party thereby providing a history of statutory employee awards in the United Kingdom as they have evolved over the last fifty years.
{"title":"From Banks to Shanks: the history of employee awards for patented inventions under the Patents Act 1977","authors":"Phillip Johnson","doi":"10.4337/QMJIP.2021.02.01","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4337/QMJIP.2021.02.01","url":null,"abstract":"The introduction of statutory awards for inventors in the Patents Act 1977 was highly controversial. Using original archival sources and parliamentary debates, the political battles that raged both in public and behind the scenes are explored. Central to the policy development was a report by a government appointed Working Party; yet, until now, this report and its recommendations have not been published. The report represents a compromise agreement between representatives of both employers and employees. It was used by the government as the main defence of its policy. Using this report, and the contemporary political discussions, the small number of decisions of the comptroller and the courts will be examined to see if they reflect the balance struck by the Working Party thereby providing a history of statutory employee awards in the United Kingdom as they have evolved over the last fifty years.","PeriodicalId":42155,"journal":{"name":"Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property","volume":"11 1","pages":"124-157"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47543253","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-01DOI: 10.4337/QMJIP.2021.02.06
Poorna Mysoor
{"title":"Book review: Patrick Masiyakurima, Copyright Protection of Unpublished Works in the Common Law World (Hart Publishing, Oxford 2020) 240 pp.","authors":"Poorna Mysoor","doi":"10.4337/QMJIP.2021.02.06","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4337/QMJIP.2021.02.06","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42155,"journal":{"name":"Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property","volume":"11 1","pages":"242-247"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44621770","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-01DOI: 10.4337/QMJIP.2021.02.00
J. Gibson
The fashion industry is articulated upon the personalities of bodies, the intimacy of the product’s touch and feel, the community of trends and tribes. The effect of Covid-19 has been far-reaching and indiscriminate, not only for the maintenance of the practical and commercial infrastructure of fashion, but also for the very identity of fashion itself. In the first instance there was the very direct response of turning factories over to the production of protective equipment and the positioning of the face mask as a fashion item. The impact of the virus on production, including the closure of factories, has magnified already existing attention on outsourcing and the uncertain welfare of workers in poorer economies manufacturing the bulk of fast fashion. At the same time, slow fashion movements such as luxury rental may never recover. Fundamentally there has also been a transformative shift in fashion’s identity. Fashion struggles with social distance and hoards trending products. Fashion has already been confronting its record on sustainability, but with the impact of the virus, the object of fashion’s commercial model is moving even further away from that of the turnover of the individual product and closer to a discourse of reuse and duration. Ultimately, and perhaps inevitably, the fashion industry has had to reconcile a retail model of selling less product rather than more. Fashion is becoming less ‘eventful’ and the display of fashion’s twenty-first-century boulevardier is increasingly a mediated and virtual presence, rather than a vibrant one. In this respect, the consumer’s belief in the provenance of the fashion product (and the authenticity and assurance of labelling) becomes the object at stake and in transaction, rather than the product itself. The social life of fashion is thus becoming more difficult to recognize but, in many ways, also easier to find. Covid-19 has presented specific challenges to the fashion industry, some well beyond the immediate retail relationship. Not only individual brands, but also to a large extent the industry itself, have been forced to re-position and secure identity and resilience. One particularly extraordinary phenomenon has been the translation of fashion into the fan communities of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the latest release of Nintendo’s social simulation video game series, Animal Crossing. I say extraordinary, but in many ways the fashioning of Animal Crossing and the gaming of fashion were a long time coming.
{"title":"When games are the only fashion in town: Covid-19, Animal Crossing, and the future of fashion","authors":"J. Gibson","doi":"10.4337/QMJIP.2021.02.00","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4337/QMJIP.2021.02.00","url":null,"abstract":"The fashion industry is articulated upon the personalities of bodies, the intimacy of the product’s touch and feel, the community of trends and tribes. The effect of Covid-19 has been far-reaching and indiscriminate, not only for the maintenance of the practical and commercial infrastructure of fashion, but also for the very identity of fashion itself. In the first instance there was the very direct response of turning factories over to the production of protective equipment and the positioning of the face mask as a fashion item. The impact of the virus on production, including the closure of factories, has magnified already existing attention on outsourcing and the uncertain welfare of workers in poorer economies manufacturing the bulk of fast fashion. At the same time, slow fashion movements such as luxury rental may never recover. Fundamentally there has also been a transformative shift in fashion’s identity. Fashion struggles with social distance and hoards trending products. Fashion has already been confronting its record on sustainability, but with the impact of the virus, the object of fashion’s commercial model is moving even further away from that of the turnover of the individual product and closer to a discourse of reuse and duration. Ultimately, and perhaps inevitably, the fashion industry has had to reconcile a retail model of selling less product rather than more. Fashion is becoming less ‘eventful’ and the display of fashion’s twenty-first-century boulevardier is increasingly a mediated and virtual presence, rather than a vibrant one. In this respect, the consumer’s belief in the provenance of the fashion product (and the authenticity and assurance of labelling) becomes the object at stake and in transaction, rather than the product itself. The social life of fashion is thus becoming more difficult to recognize but, in many ways, also easier to find. Covid-19 has presented specific challenges to the fashion industry, some well beyond the immediate retail relationship. Not only individual brands, but also to a large extent the industry itself, have been forced to re-position and secure identity and resilience. One particularly extraordinary phenomenon has been the translation of fashion into the fan communities of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the latest release of Nintendo’s social simulation video game series, Animal Crossing. I say extraordinary, but in many ways the fashioning of Animal Crossing and the gaming of fashion were a long time coming.","PeriodicalId":42155,"journal":{"name":"Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45472496","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}