• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.66 no.1
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• pp.28-41
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• 2016

This paper is aimed at intensively examining the scope of legal protection for fashion designs under the Design Protection Act of Korea. For this purpose, this looked into how the Act defines the concept of design, its requirements, and the prerequisites for acquiring design rights. The study also reviewed statutory interpretations over the judgment of the identity and similarity of designs. For more practical and substantial discussions, this research utilized cases and precedents, which had relevant legal principles. This study also figured out how both the requirements for a design definition - such as merchantability, configuration, visibility, and aesthetics - and the prerequisites for acquiring design rights - like industrial applicability, novelty, and creativity - are interpreted and utilized in actual circumstances. The authors expressed their opinions regarding the criteria of judging the identity and similarity of designs, based on a study of previous cases. Previous rulings show that aesthetics of the exterior design is used as the criteria for determining whether a design is same or similar. So, two designs, which have different specific details, are deemed same or similar, if both designs show similarity in the dominant elements. This is because both designs will produce similar aesthetic qualities. However, if the dominant elements of a design are part of the public domain, and the specific details characterize the design, the latter has to be evaluated in the process. This paper examined scope of legal protection for fashion designs using relevant precedents. The study may serve as academic materials that lead to the establishment of rightful ownership in creative activities.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.64 no.7
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• pp.97-113
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• 2014

The study aims to determine the significance and characteristics of self-similarity inherent in natural objects or phenomena, the existence of self-similarity in design created by fashion designers, and the traits and internal significance implied in self-similarity and their effects on fashion. The subject of the study is Viktor & Rolf, and the scope of the study is the collections created from 2001 to 2014, which include designs implemented in their early years and those unveiled in the media. Self-similarity means attributes of a fractal structure appearing without change in the original form, even after modification of scale or direction in terms of shape or phenomena. As self-similarity is applied to the arts and design sectors, it leads people to pay attention to fundamental characteristics and intrinsic forms as a factor of expressing a unique creative world. Analysis of Viktor & Rolf collections generated ribbons, overlapping/juxtaposition, side decorations and exaggerated design elements as basic units of self-similarity. These factors had self-similarity rates as high as 84%. Self-similarity was established as design elements formed in the incipient stage were repeated in a certain form, and continued for a long period of time. It served as an element that recognizes design and a fashion designer at the same time. Characteristics of self-similarity appearing in Viktor & Rolf collections can be summarized as homeostasis based on an equivalent relationship, balance based on self-organization, reducibility into essential elements, and uniqueness based on odd shapes. These characteristics influenced the pursuit of consistent brand image, the maintenance of a fashion designer's creative world, the formation of styles and the expression of a fashion designer's identity.