Where IP and Guilty Pleasure TV Collide

Over the weekend I watched the latest installment of “Project Runway” that my DVR had so thoughtfully recorded and about halfway through the episode we got to the part where something goes terribly wrong for one of the designers. (Just like other “reality” shows, every episode of ProjRun follows a similar plot arc and seems to have pre-determined characters.) This week it was for designated mean girl Irina who was designing her clothes for the finale with a New York theme, including some graphic t-shirts that she found somewhere and planned to incorporate. She’s nearing completion when she gets a call from Tim “Make it Work” Gunn telling her that the t-shirts have to go since the images are trademarked and she doesn’t have the rights to use them.

Dun dun duuuuunnnnnn.

Irina has to find another way to finish the looks. She is stressed and freaking out a little bit.

And there, of course, is the irony. By trying out for and competing on ProjRun, Irina assumedly has ambitions to be a real, honest-to-goodness, not-just-making-fun-sweaters-for-your-friends fashion designer.  And if she were to make a name for herself, or design a new print, or have a distinguishable logo, or any of the other intellectual property things that are part of the fashion design world, I’m sure Irina would be angry if some up-and-comer were trying to copy it, or use it without her permission. Heck, even on the show she’s gotten ticked off and accused other contestants of ripping off her ideas.

And it’s the same IP problem that we see in other parts of the IP world—a tension between IP creators and IP users, and how the line of acceptability is blurred when user becomes creator.  It’s the clichéd “for me, but not for thee” scenario. And for as much money as networks and distributors and production companies and everybody else spends to fight counterfeiting, unauthorized use, and improper distribution of their work, you’d think they’d take this smart opportunity to work a little IP messaging—seriously, what would it take? Ten seconds?–in to the show.

Hmmm. Then again, maybe they were long on time and Irina’s passionate defense of trademarks is sitting on the cutting room floor (next to the unused t-shirts and that hideous fur concoction on which she was working).