The fashion business in the United States produces more than $300 billion in revenue per year. In addition to its significant aid to the U.S. economy, fashion is considered an art form. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City holds numerous exhibitions highlighting fashion projects. Among the most notable are those glorifying Coco Chanel, whose iconic designs transformed women's approach to wearing clothes, as well as increasing admiration for trousers during the 1920s; Alexander McQueen, whose designs had the merit of conveying a sense of imagination and revolt against fashion; and Charles James, who used sculptural, systematic, and careful approaches to construct iconic ballgowns, and whose innovative tailoring continues to influence designers today. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The issue of federal regulation to protect industrialized designs is an old one in the United States. Congress has raised its voice on the issue in repeated instances since 1914. Design protection bills were taken up by the House in the 71st Congress and by the Senate in the 87th, 88th, and 89th Congresses. In the 91st through 94th Congresses, design protection was combined with the general copyright amendment bill then undecided in the Senate. The form of the amended copyright bill accepted by the Senate in 1975 included a separate title on design protection. The House subcommittee, however, decided that design protection should be well thought out separately from copyright modification. The amended copyright bill was signed into law without a design protection component in October 1976 and took effect on January 1, 1978. The design protection bills were announced separately in each Congress from the 96th to the 102d. The subcommittee held general hearings in 1990 and 1992. No additional action was taken by Congress on the general issue of design protection after the 1992 hearing. However, in 1998 the 105th Congress considered and ratified a more limited design protection legislation as part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). Title V of the DMCA, the Vessel Hull Design Protection Act (“VHDPA”), presented a sui generis defense to the design of ship hulls. That legislation, organized in Chapter 13 of Title 17, built primarily on earlier legislation, but narrowed the scope of protection from drawings of useful articles generally to drawings of ship hulls. Design Patents Two types of patents are accessible under US Patent Law: utility patents and design patents. Designers can access protection for their fashion designs by applying for a design patent. Design patents defend the look of a design, or decoration, as long as it is unique, non-functional and not obvious to a designer with normal industry experience. When applying for a design patent, the designer must necessarily claim some characteristics of the project that must be safeguarded; therefore, the patent covers the underlying design concept, not the exact product sold by the designer. Clothing designs are generally deemed unpatentable as they are considered useful. Furthermore, it is believed that clothing patterns are obvious and not unique. Although the defined characteristics of a model are not unique or clear, their mixture in that model may be. Therefore, a designer can patent crucial features and vital parts of the clothing design. Design patents.