How is perfume protected(from piracy)....b/c you can't copyright, trademark or patent a scent/or smell?

Answer 1

You can patent the recipe for a particular scent, and it can also be protected as a trade secret, like the formula for Coca-Cola.

Answer 2

As someone who has spent years in the patent business, I regard copyright with near contempt. I have some idea of what it takes to get an invention protected by patent and on the market. A lot of time, money and effort. In some cases the invention may have a background of ten years research before the first patent application is prepared. There is a lot of sweat there as well. It will generally take three to five years to get a patent application through and probably two out of three applications never make it. The result is a patent that lasts 20 years, 25 at the most and it is only live if you keep paying a fee to the patent office. This fee is small at first but gets higher as the patent gets older. That fee is paid in all countries, so paying the European Patent Office does not keep your patent live in the USA or anywhere else. During the life of the patent anyone may take part of the invention, modify it slightly and that's another invention. You may get a licence fee from them, either by agreement or enforced by the courts, but if then part they use is considered to be small, they may not have to pay a fee at all. Contrast this with the pop music industry. A few people spend maybe three days, maybe a few of weeks kludging a song together. It does not have to make sense, all it has to do is sound good enough. Maybe two days in the recording studio going over and over it and then the engineers get to work After maybe 300 person - hours of work you have a saleable product. The copyright on this is automatic, free and it lasts in some cases for 70 years after the artists die. You do not have to consult an intellectual or industrial property lawyer, you don't even have to register it with a government agency for a $5 fee. You put the thing on the market and if it is going to make money it will do so within five yeas, usually less than two. From then on unless it is a huge international hit the royalties are chicken feed. If your copyright ran out after ten years you'd never notice the difference. Take the 1959 movie "North by Northwest" which would have been one of the higher quality offerings from Hollywood that year. A lot of effort went into making it and that shows. But how long did it take the studio to get their money back and turn a tidy profit after release? More than likely just a few months. By 1969 the royalties would have just about dried up. Made in 1959, it is still covered by copyright, but the patent on the fibre Spandex invented the same year would have run out by about 1980. Does this seem fair or reasonable? Not to me.

Answer 3

Because you can copyright, patent, or get a trademark for the *formula* that makes up the scent/smell

Answer 4

You can copyright a formula to produxce a scent, if not the scent itself.

And you *can* copyright logos, design, etc -- Which is what makes perfume sell in the first place, the industry sells image not a smell.

Answer 5

Perfume is Now Covered by Copyright
Dutch appeals court has now ruled that their compositions, historically protected by patents and trade secrets, are also covered by copyright.
and perfumes can be prtoected under us law for a patent

Answer 6

They have people who they hire to protect them. As long as another "false fragrance" says "smells like" or "compares too" its safe. However if they say they are, meaning a "knock off" then that can get the law involved, take samples (because of course, the "high end" fragrances do smell better FOR A REASON. They use better ingredients.) They can then compare them chemically and then fine or arrest the people putting out the false fragrances.

Many "people" also do this to protect themselves. Alyssa Milano (Charmed) had people who only scoured the internet looking for fake nudes of her, and sueing or threatening to sue the people until they removed them. In this way she was able to control her image.

Answer 7

it's not. They do, however, guard their recipies.