Protect sketches, patterns, and collections
Proof of prior authorship recognized by French courts for fashion creations — €2, no signup, verifiable by anyone.
The situation
You finalize a collection after six months of work: moodboard, fabric research, sketches, color variants, patterns, prototypes. You present it to buyers at a trade show, or post a few pieces on Instagram before the official launch. Three weeks later, a fast fashion retailer drops a strikingly similar collection: same silhouettes, same palette, recognizable patterns.
Or: you're an independent designer, producing unique pieces or short runs. An online shop reproduces your visual signature identically, selling them at a quarter of your price, exploiting the fact that you cannot afford international design rights filings.
Or: you work with a contract manufacturer abroad. Your technical patterns are reused for another client, without consent.
These situations are the norm in the industry, not the exception. The legal question is always the same: on what date can you prove this creation was yours?
The real risk
The fashion industry is arguably the most exposed to industrialized copying. Global supply chains, fast fashion lead times (sometimes three weeks between sketch and shelf), and the ease of reproducing patterns and silhouettes make it a natural battleground for disputes.
Most jurisdictions following the Berne Convention protect works of applied arts from the moment of creation — including sketches, models, textile patterns, and original silhouettes. Registered designs filed with EUIPO, USPTO or their equivalents offer stronger protection, but their cost (starting around €350 for a basic Community design filing, more depending on the number of classes and the duration of protection) makes them poorly suited to independent creators producing dozens of pieces per season.
This is precisely where proof of prior authorship changes the equation: for €2, you protect an entire collection — not a single model.
The case law that changes everything
On March 20, 2025, the Tribunal judiciaire de Marseille issued a landmark decision for the fashion sector (AZ Factory v. Valeria Moda, RG 23/00046). For the first time in Europe, a court recognized the probative value of blockchain timestamping to establish prior authorship of fashion designs.
The context: AZ Factory had anchored its sketches on a blockchain shortly after creation. When closely similar models were marketed by an international competitor, AZ Factory was able to produce dated fingerprints in court, publicly verifiable, predating any commercialization by the defendant. The court accepted these elements as serious initial evidence.
What this decision means concretely for you: blockchain timestamping is no longer an "experimental" or "fringe" tool in the fashion sector — it is a method of proof recognized by French courts. You no longer have to defend the principle before a judge; you have to use it.
One important detail: in the AZ Factory case, the bailiff's report (which formally locks the evidence at the time of dispute) was requested more than fourteen months after the initial anchoring. You pay €2 now; you only pay for the bailiff's report if, one day, a dispute actually arises.
Read the full analysis in the EU legal guide →What you can anchor
For a fashion creation, what matters goes well beyond the final sketch or lookbook photo:
- Sketches and concept notebooks (scans or photos)
- Inspiration boards, moodboards, trend notebooks
- Fabric research, textile samples photographed
- Color studies and palettes
- Patterns and technical templates (frozen PDFs)
- Tech packs with measurements, construction, finishings
- 3D garment models (CLO 3D, Browzwear, PDF exports)
- Lookbooks, runway photos, prototype photos
- Collection notes (written concept, creative direction, cultural references)
- Runway plans, casting, staging (for full collections)
- Correspondence with ateliers, suppliers, embroiderers (PDF exports)
Why the bundle changes everything
A collection is not an isolated product. It's a narrative universe built over months, where each piece finds meaning in the whole. Anchoring only the final photo of the hero piece protects only a fraction of your work.
A bundle containing the full chronology — initial moodboard, fabric research, first sketches, rejected variants, technical patterns, prototypes, final pieces — demonstrates the creative trajectory. This is precisely what distinguishes original creation from coincidence: the opposing collection may present a similar final product, but it cannot reproduce your design process, your preparatory research, your iterations.
For €2 — the price of a single anchoring — you can fit up to 50 MB of files in a single bundle. An entire collection of sketches, boards and tech packs, exported as frozen PDFs, easily fits within that envelope.
A real case
A typical scenario in the industry: an independent designer, based outside Europe, creates unique pieces drawing on artisanal craftsmanship and a personal visual language. They produce in short runs, sell to an international clientele, and gradually build recognition for their brand.
The risk for this profile is not so much the plagiarism of a single model as the systematic reproduction of their signature — palette, recurring patterns, characteristic forms — by actors who exploit the difficulty of acting legally across borders. Registered designs cover one specific model; they don't cover a coherent visual universe.
An ETcH bundle anchored at each collection (5 to 10 minutes of work, €2) gradually builds a complete and opposable chronology of the brand's creative evolution. In a dispute, what can be produced in evidence is not only the final models, but the entire design process over multiple seasons.
From there, several remedies exist — often without a lawyer and without court — to stop unauthorized reuse: platform takedown, cease and desist, and if necessary, legal action. All rest on the same prerequisite: being able to prove prior authorship.
How to use it
Finalize your deliverables in the version you want to protect. Export as frozen PDFs — native files modify their metadata when opened, which invalidates the proof.
Gather the collection files you consider relevant to the proof: sketches, boards, fabric research, patterns, tech packs, relevant correspondence.
Drop them on etchproof.eu SHA-256 fingerprints are computed in your browser — no file ever leaves your machine.
Keep the proof ZIP delivered after anchoring. It contains the PDF certificate, the manifest, the Ethereum transaction, and your original files. This is what holds up in case of dispute — keep at least two copies, in two different locations.
Honest limits
ETcH timestamping proves prior existence, not authorship. To support authorship in a dispute, you'll often need other elements: witness statements, correspondence, evidence of iterative design — which is exactly what bundling enables.
Timestamping does not replace a bailiff's report (or your jurisdiction's equivalent) if the dispute goes to court. But that report can be issued months or years after the anchoring: in the AZ Factory case, the bailiff's report came more than fourteen months after the original anchoring. You pay €2 now — and only the cost of the report (typically a few hundred euros) if a dispute actually arises.