I do not know if a patent/ copyright is necessary for this. Please help as I am seeking serious advice?

First of all, thank you for taking the time to read this and perhaps assist me.





I have an idea to alter and thereby re-invent a very common article of clothing. Before I produce any sketches and have prototypes made, I need to know if a patent or copyright is in order.





The following are comparable ideas to my own and I am wondering if the individuals that pioneered making and selling such products recieved some legal protection for their work. For example: sleeve-less shirts, low-cut socks, and v-neck t-shirts are all comparable to my own idea in that they are solely an alteration of pre-existing products.





Did the pioneers of the afformention pursue copyrights or patents, if so which of the two? Thank you so much for your insight.I do not know if a patent/ copyright is necessary for this. Please help as I am seeking serious advice?
Clothing design is not a literary, artistic or musical work, so it is not copyrightable. Certain clothing %26amp; design innovations are patentable. Simple variations on common design elements -- such as your examples -- are not. Some design elements that are associated with particular manufacturers can be registered as trademarks. You need to consult a patent attorney, preferably one with experience in design patents, who can give you an opinion. As a practical matter it is almost impossible to obtain useful patent protection for clothing fashions. Your best bet may be to have an attorney prepare a strong non-disclosure agreement %26amp; use it peddle your design to existing designers or manufacturers -- 90% of which won't even talk to you. Even then, it may not be of much use; plagiarism %26amp; theft of ideas is the lifeblood of the clothing business.I do not know if a patent/ copyright is necessary for this. Please help as I am seeking serious advice?
Technically, anytime a work is created it is automatically copyrighted by default.
This sounds like an asthetic design issue, and copyright is the most appropriate means. Patent is not.