Fashionably Fake! : report information on fake products

The fashion industry is one of the most vulnerable segments when it comes to the protection of intellectual property. In the fashion world, creativity and innovation are the driving force of this thriving industry. A unique and intriguing aspect of the fashion domain is that it doesn’t really matter who had the original idea, whoever gives the people what they want in terms of fashion, comes out on top. For example the fashion industry isn’t really research based, it’s about the ongoing trends and who is alert enough to catch on to it, innovate on that basic trend and give the people a new product. New is the keyword in the fashion industry, Things gets old and obsolete even before you know it, what is “in” today may be “out” tomorrow. This fast paced and high competition environment does not really leave any scope for the creator to bother about intellectual property protection or to information on fake products. Another point worth mentioning is that when it comes to fashion goods and accessories it is very easy to cover up work that is copied. A bead here, a sequin there, change the color and voila! You have something new! And such occurrences aren’t really questioned as long as the people get what they want. This pattern of function makes it extremely tedious to identify intellectual property violations and counterfeiting in the fashion industry.

The U.S spends millions of dollars every year in order to ensure the development of innovative textile designs. However in India there isn’t really a mechanism that has been developed to ensure originality and innovation in the fashion industry and on the whole there is a dearth of IPR investigators in India. The share of fake products in the global market has been estimated to be around 8%. These fake products in the import/ export chain seriously affect the economies of many countries and cause the loss of billions of dollars.       

It is evident that a serious need for regulation, control and innovation of intellectual property right solutions in the fashion industry. Clearly, the violators are well aware of the existing laws and are taking advantage of the many loopholes in the IPR laws. Fashion designs are the result of hard work, imagination, creativity and financial investment and therefore these designs must be protected from theft so that the original idea remains and credit goes to whom it is due.