Assorted Afflatuses

Whether as the result of objectionable policies or customer service ineptitude, some stores have lost my business. Take Best Buy. After one of their checkout clerks tried to convince me that I should buy the $25 extended warranty for a $5 keyboard, I decided never to visit again. Another bad experience at the AT&T store several years ago, where a salesperson blatantly lied to me, drove me away from that establishment. My aversion to so-called "fast fashion" emporiums, like Forever 21 and Zara, however, is much more complicated.

One cannot, of course, ignore such companies' contributions to global warming, whether by promoting consumption or fabricating clothing in materials that require more energy to clean. But do not expect to find me protesting amidst a crowd of loony environmentalists clad in taupe-colored smocks made of ridiculous organic linen. Rather, I object to such chains because they purloin the concepts and ideas designers pour over for hours, weeks, or years in order to bring them to life.

The New York Times ran a stunning piece last week on this very subject, whose accompanying online gallery really illustrated this phenomenon well. I always sensed similarities between the wares in runway shows and the garments draped over mannequins as I passed by the Zara shops in Paris, but never had I realized the extent to which fast-fashion corporations draw their so-called "inspiration" from hard-working and intelligent people in the industry.

Many would correctly note, though, that designs and trends always trickle down from top-end designer labels to inexpensive wares at run-of-the-mill department stores, just as features on high-end automobiles — like metallic paint and satellite navigation systems — eventually trickle town to budget compacts from luxury sedans. Fast fashion firms, however, have engineered a supply chain that often beats the actual designers to the store. The knockoff, then, can be purchased before the authentic garment has left the factory.

More vexingly, I doubt this would happen in any other industry. The patent, which has existed in some form for over half a millennia, protects most unique ideas from exploitation by anyone other than their progenitor. But the US government has ignored calls from American and foreign designers alike to include patent protection to designs. Would the government have denied Pfizer the right to patent Lipitor if the pharmaceutical industry did not have patent protections? Probably not.

The patent protection for product designs need not be terribly restrictive. Providing a six to nine month window of exclusivity would allow hardworking designers to scrape a living, while barely inhibiting the natural flow of ideas from top-end to mass market. For now though, it seems I will have to content myself with a solitary boycott.