Blockchain for securing IP in fashion and design
Document every step of your design process, from first sketch to final collection. Back your IP rights with Bitcoin blockchain certificates and separate timestamps from EU and Chinese timestamp providers.
The IP rights system for the fashion and design industry
IP awareness in the fashion sector is growing. Designers face short product lifecycles and low technological barriers to copying, making traditional legal protections - copyright, trademarks, and design rights - difficult to prove and enforce.
Bernstein gives you instant, timestamped evidence of your creative work. What you designed, and when - ready the day someone copies you.
IP protection for clothing and garments
Copyright law
Fabric patterns and surface decorations
Trademark law
Logos and indications of source
Registered & unregistered design rights
Ornamental designs of functional items
Certified evidence for protecting your designs
Every certification gives you a Bitcoin blockchain certificate. On Scale and Enterprise plans, you also get separate timestamps from an EU qualified and a Chinese trusted timestamp authority. Each is independent evidence that your file existed, unchanged, at a given time.
Records of the design process
Certify sketches, patterns, prototypes, and each new version to build a dated record of how your designs evolve. Certify notes on who contributed what, too. And because the Bitcoin blockchain is public, no single party controls the record - not even us.
Evidence of use and reputation
Certify lookbooks, product images, campaigns, and sales records. You keep dated evidence of how your brand is used, to support trademark use and reputation when it counts.
Confidentiality
Unreleased designs stay private, in encrypted, versioned storage. Only a cryptographic fingerprint goes on the Bitcoin blockchain, never your design. Your original files stay ready whenever you need to validate them.
How Bernstein fits in
Bernstein is a web application that certifies your files on the Bitcoin blockchain. Anyone can verify your certificates independently, anywhere in the world. With zero-knowledge encryption, your designs stay private - even from us.
How Bernstein protects designers
Instant protection
Certify designs the moment they're created. No waiting for registration or approval.
Show you got there first
Dated evidence that your design existed before the copy.
Protect full collections
Certify entire collections, sketches, patterns, and technical specs together.
Verifiable worldwide
Anyone, in any market, can check your certificates independently.
Deterrent effect
Certified records make employees and partners think twice before walking off with your designs.
Evidence for enforcement
Back your case against copiers and counterfeiters with certified evidence.
What designers certify
How it works
Upload your designs
Upload sketches, photos, or technical files. Everything is encrypted locally.
Get certified
Get a Bitcoin blockchain certificate showing your design existed, unchanged, at that moment.
Share safely
Present to manufacturers and buyers with proof of ownership.
Enforce rights
Use certificates as evidence in disputes or legal proceedings.
IP resources for fashion and design
Practical tools and guidance for identifying IP assets and understanding design protection.