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Copycats are frustrating but hard to stop in fashion business: experts
Designers are turning to industrial design filings and trademarks as brands like Lululemon face copycats that can be hard to stop, experts said.
- Canadian fashion designers are increasingly grappling with copycats who replicate their unique styles, leaving creators frustrated as mass retailers profit from their original work.
- Copyright law in Canada and the United States offers scant protection for fashion designs, said Christopher Sprigman, co-author of "The Knockoff Economy: How Imitation Sparks Innovation," making most copying perfectly legal.
- Erin McEwen, a trademark agent at Nelligan Law in Ottawa, suggests registering industrial designs with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office to protect novel visual elements for 15 years; Lululemon Athletica Inc. has filed 184 such registrations.
- Lululemon and Aritzia Inc. recently trademarked "Lululemon dupe" and "Aritzia dupe" to combat influencers, though Sprigman argues this "lawyer trick" is "unlikely to work" because copycats rarely use protected brand names.
- Kharey, founder of Nonie and Folds, suggests victims focus on innovation rather than litigation; while copying is "stressful," superior products remain the best way to distinguish original brands from imitators.
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11 Articles
11 Articles
Copycats are frustrating but hard to stop in fashion business: experts
While Calgary clothing designer Nina Kharey has taken a grin-and-bear-it approach to imitators, others like Lululemon Athletica Inc., Aritzia Inc. and Nike have seemingly grown so fed up they're resorting to legal action.
·Canada
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Total News Sources11
Leaning Left5Leaning Right0Center4Last UpdatedBias Distribution56% Left
Bias Distribution
- 56% of the sources lean Left
56% Left
L 56%
C 44%
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