TRADE RESTRAINTS - ASSOCIATIONS OF MANUFACTURERS TO COMBAT STYLE PIRACY - ILLEGAL RESTRAINTS OF TRADE

Authors

Michigan Law Review, University of Michigan Law School

Abstract

In order to combat the practice of "style piracy" among competitors, a large number of producers of women's coats and dresses formed an association, whose membership was composed of designers, manufacturers, and distributors. Producers adjudged copyists by the association were not permitted membership. The clear purpose of the association was primarily to boycott retailers who refused to deal solely with members of the association, and secondarily to boycott, and eliminate competition from, the copyists. In addition there was provided a system of registration for designs made by members, and a judicial type of machinery for protecting the designers' interest therein. The association further limited the business activities of its members through, among other things, restrictions on their participation in retail advertising and their retail sales, and on the discounts which they might allow. On essentially these findings, the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the trial court's approval of the Federal Trade Commission's cease and desist order. Held, by unanimous decision of the Supreme Court on certiorari, that the practices of the association constituted unfair methods of competition and were illegal under the Federal Trade Commission, Clayton, and Sherman Anti-Trust Acts. Fashion Originators' Guild of America v. Federal Trade Commission, (U.S. 1941) 61 S. Ct. 703.

Recommended Citation

Michigan Law Review, TRADE RESTRAINTS - ASSOCIATIONS OF MANUFACTURERS TO COMBAT STYLE PIRACY - ILLEGAL RESTRAINTS OF TRADE, 39 Mich. L. Rev. 1249 (1941).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol39/iss7/23