FASHION LAW

Course Description
The “Fashion Law” course aims at providing the participant the most updated practical information, benchmarks and field expertise concerning the most relevant aspects involving legal frameworks and perspective inside fashion and luxury companies.
Starting with an introduction to the industry, from the main business models, to industry segmentation and core processes, the course will focus on all the main stages of the fashion lifecycle, from the concept design, up to the licensing and client relationship management, in order to promote the knowledge of processes, best practices, real cases studies, applied frameworks to the fashion and luxury industries, thanks to a multidisciplinary faculty composed of academics, practitioners and industry professionals.  
                                                                                       
Partnerships
The ‘Fashion Law’ course is carried out by the Milano Fashion Institute Faculty, composed of academics and practitioners from law, fashion design and fashion business backgrounds, in collaboration with leading legal office professionals as well as fashion & luxury companies’ managers and lawyers. A multidisciplinary team, for granting the deepest understanding of fashion law practices, and enhancing participants’ opportunities as insiders.

Educational goals
The “Fashion Law” course is designed for:
-    Graduates, students and practitioners in law, who want to get notions and fundamental knowledge concerning fashion and luxury businesses from a legal perspective.
-    Graduates and students in business and economics, who want to understand the most relevant legal issues inside a fashion & luxury company, in order to acquire transversal and multi-disciplinary competences, that will permit them to properly manage core processes, particularly in small and medium fashion companies.

At the end of the course, participant will have learnt how to deal with the complexity of fashion and luxury companies processes, how to properly manage and apply the relevant rules and business practices, from contracts and agreements to the management of trademarks and other IPRs, as well as how to properly relate and add value within relations with different company stakeholders (licensing processes, value chain, etc).
 

Course Directors

Nicola Guerini
He is Director-General of Milano Fashion Institute. He specialized in the areas of Corporate Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Business Planning and in the Management of Fashion Companies, for which he is currently involved in degree courses at Bocconi University and other University Institutions.
Among his most recent publications: N. Guerini "Gli orizzonti della moda. Trasformazioni e sfide del Made in Italy"(Milan Produttiva, Camera di Commercio di Milano, 2017).
He is consultant for law firms and Italian and international companies in the fashion, luxury and lifestyle sectors, with particular attention to start-up projects. He is currently involved in international cooperation projects for government agencies and government educational institutions.
He is honorary advisor to Cámara Paraguaya de Diseño y Innovación of Paraguay and Member of the Start-Up Initiative Board of Panelists, Fashion & Design Tech, of Intesa San Paolo. In 2017 he received the merit medal for the development of Italian-Latin American cooperation programs by IILA intergovernmental organization, Italian Republic, active in the field of cultural, scientific and development cooperation.

Maria Lillà Montagnani
Associate Professor – Bocconi University Associate Professor in the Department of Law at Bocconi University in Milan she teachs Intellectual property law at ACME (Economics and management of art , communication and culture), and Law for marketing at MM (Marketing Management). She recently published the book: “Il diritto d’autore nell’era digitale: la distribuzione online delle opere dell’ingegno, Giuffre 2012”. Her current research interest is on Copyright and Architecture. Contract Professor at Milano Fashion Institute.
 

Why to take this course
The course is well suited for law graduate students, law practitioners, young managers, professionals and young entrepreneurs that are willing to deal with the challenges of the fashion businesses. It’s an excellent opportunity for understanding the most current legal issues and consequent best practices in the industry, that can involve different professional figures: from lawyers, to licensing managers, product managers, retail managers.

Teaching model
The teaching model is composed as follows:
- In classroom Lectures
- Case studies and best practices
- Guest speakers
- Project works and mock trials

Traditional in classroom lectures are alternated with case discussions, meetings with managers, lawyers, and other representatives of the industry, in class activities and project works. In addition, career orientation will be provided to the students that aim at working in the industry.
At the end of the course a MFI certificate is delivered to each student.

Courses
Fashion Business Models
The course is aimed at introducing students to the main business models characterizing the fashion industry, the underlying different business logics and positioning strategies, and their impact on the core processes. Lastly, an analysis of the current and most crucial industry trends will be carried out, with a focus on fashion and luxury segments.

Fashion IP protection
The course aims at discussing the different intellectual property rights that may be used to protect fashion products. By analyzing legal requirements and administrative procedures, the course will look at how and under what conditions to obtain these rights.

Fashion Design
The course explores the various stages of the fashion collection development process, identifying both the activities that are related to the organization and management of creative processes, and those related to the collection’s architecture planning, considering corporate and market boundaries. A focus will be given to the different adopted design processes: research, collection scenery and design, final development.

Fashion Negotiation
Licensing is a very effective tool to exploit the value of trademarks and other intellectual property rights. Accordingly, the course will analyze how to negotiate and write a licensing contracts, by focusing on the pros and cons of the most frequent terms and conditions.

Fashion Pipeline & Counterfeiting
This course focuses on ways to prevent and limit the counterfeiting, by working on the supply chain and on the communication via Internet. At the same time it will look at the most recent legislative developments in filed, adopted to support the so called IP-companies, such as the special tax regime for intellectual property revenues that goes under the label of “patent box”.

Field project: fashion mock trial and fashion critical analysis
The course will involve many guest lecturers and encompass a final mock trial.
Students will be able to create, build, and innovate in ways that truly reflect a laboratory.
Through an interdisciplinary approach, the projects will be based on a wide number of topics: from competition policy to intellectual property protection, thanks to lawyers and fashion professional (designers, photographers, entrepreneurs) with significant experience both from an academic and a professional standpoint.
Students will study the principles of contract design, theories of consumer consent, communication design, intellectual property, franchise law, real estate, commercial law as well as the laws relevant to fashion shows/presentations (covering matters about broad, design rights and labour law) and supply chains (with a focus on sustainability in fashion).

Our short course in "FASHION LAW - Legal knowledge and practice for fashion" is aimed at junior and professionals who want to implement their occupational skills and competence in relation to the companies of the fashion and luxury system.

Work experience within the industry is not a mandatory requirement, even if it will be considered positively during the selection process.

The multidisciplinary background of the students plays and promotes the learning processes of the typical business environments.

Studying at MFI represents a unique opportunity on a professional and personal level. On a professional level, because of the unique academic and field expertise consolidated over the decades: in particular, the exclusive focus on the fashion and luxury sectors that allows students to meet professionals, managers and lawyers from the sector. The aforementioned elements allow the student to experience the real "fashion system" together with our teachers; an opportunity that is hardly possible in other generalist training contexts which are often disconnected from the business world.

The Fashion Law course is also unique in a European context since it includes two subject areas: FASHION MANAGEMENT, to learn about the processes and how fashion companies work, together with the more contemporary themes of FASHION LAW.

On a personal level, thanks to the new 2021 campus, with modern and design classrooms, social spaces, and a truly international community, studying Fashion Law at MFI allows you to experience both an educational and social life experience.

Selection process
The selection process will be based on the evaluation of the CV and the application form.
The selection process takes place throughout the opening period of the inscriptions, in separate sessions of selection. The candidates may submit the Application Form by: 23 June, 2023.

Application
To apply for admission, the candidate must:
1. Fill the online application form, available here
2. Attach the CV in European format in the online application form, available here
After receiving the documents, Milano Fashion Institute will inform the applicant on the selection final result (admission or non admission).

Admission Requirements
In order to apply for the admission to the course, the candidate must be currently enrolled at a Bachelor of Art/Science course (Law, Business Administration) or have a degree equal to or higher than a Bachelor.
Young entrepreneurs, recent graduates with three-year degree o specialist degree, and graduates from design schools and faculties, business and economics, marketing and communication,  engineering,  architecture, languages, law, humanities.

Financial commitment
The participants are required to have a significant commitment both personally and financially.
The total cost amounts to € 2.600, payable as follows:

1st installment > 1.300 € on the acceptance of the application;
2nd installment > 1.300 € by 23 June, 2023.
Costs include a part of the study material and the use of facilities of the Institute.
Financial aid are provided for Masters students Milano Fashion Institute and Alumni Milano Fashion Institute. For information: info@milanofashioninstitute.it

Withdrawal
1. The first installment is non-refundable. The participant is allowed to withdraw, up to the eighth calendar day preceding the starting date of the course, by submitting a letter (priority mail service) to the registered address of the Milano Fashion Institute, anticipated in any case, by fax and / or e-mail; if so, the participant may request the return of fees paid, except for the first installment.

2. If the member, with methods described in the previous article, demonstrated an intention not to participate at a later date, that does not give notice and is not present in class, he/she will not be entitled to any refund and must pay the full fee bearing in mind that he/she could within a (calendar) year from the starting date of the Course, attend the next edition of the Course (if applicable) or another MFI Course, upon payment of price adjustment.