The Negative Effects of Counterfeiting

As globalisation brings in new and various products, counterfeit goods also spread quickly. This has a negative influence on local retailers and trademark owners by taking away part of their local market share, taking advantage of the designs of a brand’s

Can we license something like blue jeans or even a collar? That would be rather impractical for the fashion industry, seeing that this is where creativity is urged. The fashion industry is largely unshackled of the same copyright laws, licenses and guidelines that grip the film and music industry. However, trademarks are the only aspect that is protected in the fashion industry. As a result, this lack of intellectual protection (IP) for fashion has directly led to its huge success. Blakely expands on this point by indicating four advantages of how the lack of copyright protection has helped the fashion flourish. First, this concept has enabled the “Democratization of fashion”. This states that we have a greater variety of fashion aspects to choose from. The second advantage is that fashion trends are now being established faster in the world. Since knock-offs are being produced faster, designers are trying to stay ahead of the game by producing more complex products. In fact, Stuart Weitzman, a shoe designer,

This expansion demonstrates how the luxury industry is now run by massive corporations whose focus is only on growth, visibility, brand awareness, advertising, and most importantly, PROFITS! With growth and expansion, has come a decrease in quality and rarity. The luxury garments produced are mostly not handmade but are even outsourced to large factories in places such as China and Turkey. Also, to meet quarterly turnover projections, “designers churn(ed) out increasingly trendy collections of clothes, handbags, and shoes.” (Thomas, Pg. 246) With hundreds of new stores around the globe the surplus of designer labeled merchandise is immense hence, the proliferation of outlet malls.

Most countries will buy stolen merchandise knowingly, considering they are selfish and only think about improving their country. Many countries do not think about the losses of other countries. For example,if the United States loss something really important many people would want to fight to find their countries prize possession.As mentioned in “Bring Them Home,”Egypt’s invaluable burial mask was stolen and purchased at a museum in St.Louis.In modern time,people are jailed for receiving stolen merchandise;maybe some museums need to be shut down for not returning looted

For years, Louis Vuitton enjoyed high profit margins from the luxury market in Japan until other competitors such as Prada and Gucci entered the market. Counterfeiting also became a threat to the firm’s brand by satisfying consumer demand at lower prices. Other external global environmental problems included highly priced products, limited availability in stores only, and a heavy dependency on the Japanese market (Pearce & Robinson, 2013, p. 14-18). Moreover, “the after-shocks of the global recession were a threat to Louis Vuitton’s luxury business in Japan”, and Japanese women became less interested in the brand’s products (Pearce & Robinson, 2013, p. 14-18). Alternatively, Louis Vuitton could “reinvent itself and regain what used to be its well-attested

The famous counterfeiter, Benjamin Boyd, was caught red-handed in the making of the front of a 20 dollar bill. Boyd is a talented engraver, his best work was a five-dollar bill that some experts couldn’t tell was fake. Ben father was also an excellent engraver, and wanted his son to be skilled enough to take over the family business, so he set Ben up to study with one of the city's best engravers, and his name was Nat Kinsey. Little did Ben’s father know, Nat Kinsey also cut plates to print counterfeit money. Ben was tempted by the idea of making money and learned quickly from Kinsey. When Ben was twenty he cut his first two plates: the front and the back of a 20 dollar bill.

It is impossible to beat a cheap price. In today’s world, finding a sought after item at a dirt cheap price is one the main motivation American’s get in the car and battle the craziness in the mall. And as the basic American human beings that we are, it is never possible for us to be complacent with the amount of stuff we currently have. Eventually, we will come across a friend that has the next must have item that will cause us to run to our local mall and purchase a similar item at the lowest price possible. With all that said, it is no wonder why the industry of fast fashion has taken off over the past decade. Felipe Caro and Victor Martínez-de-Albéniz, researchers for UCLA’s school of supply chain coordination, define fast fashion as “a business model that combines four elements: (i) fashionable clothes mostly for consumers under 40; (ii) affordable prices in the mid-to-low range; (iii) quick response; and (iv) frequent assortment changes”. Retailers like H&M, Forever 21, Target, and Wal-Mart have been able to take this business model and make a fortune. But while all these quick trends and cheap prices are great for the consumer, its cost on the foreign worker and the environment does not go uncovered. In the book Overdressed by Elizabeth Cline, she presents many arguments supporting the claim that fast fashion is unethical based on

“Aleah, that is so ugly,” my friends exclaimed as I eagerly pulled out my brand new pants from their perfectly packaged shipping box. “But they’re Michael Kors!” I argued, as though it increased their appeal. The truth was, the price tag read $78.00, and they were completely see through. Within society, there are numerous people who spend thousands of dollars on designer clothing that is not considered attractive street fashion or good quality. Often, the reason clothing is priced highly is because it includes a logo to advertise the brand and proclaim that it is “the cool thing to wear” while pressuring surrounding people to buy from the same designer as an attempt to become cool as well.

Fashion is everything to society and the media. The fashion industry has transformed into a necessity in the life of people. Everyone wants to look good, feel fabulous and feel as if we belong with everyone else. The envy and desire to wear certain things and look a certain way all come, from wearing the latest fashion handbags, accessories, dresses, shoes, and the list goes on. But, when is considering fashion into an individual’s life going too far to the extreme? Many do not consider the whereabouts of fashion materials and how the environment is affected by the mere existence of certain garments. Some may believe these objects grow on trees. But that is clearly not the case. Even though it would be nice. The fashion industry as a

Clarks theory on Situational Crime Prevention is based on that crime can be reduced and decreased when it is more difficult to commit commit a crime. Especially in retail a way to reduces crime and reward is to have ink tags on the apparel. This will make it harder for a person to steal it, also if they do attempt to steal it the ink tag will brake causing the clothing to be defective due to the ink. This will reduce the reward because it will not be able to be used. Just ask it stated in the PowerPoint this will, “Increase the degree of necessary effort to carry out offense” (Leboratto 2017) because the person who is trying to steal it will need to struggle and take their time, which its not good because when a person steal they do not have time to waste.

To those who are not familiar with the processes within the fashion industry, this world of style is characterized by a peaceful coexistence between all the stakeholders. To those in the know however, this is far from the truth with the fashion industry. The value of the United Kingdom fashion industry is large contributing to about 20 billion pounds into the country’s economy on an annual basis. To have a better understanding, the contribution made by the fashion industry to the country’s Gross Domestic Product is almost twice that being brought in by car manufacturers which is valued at 10.1 billion so fashion is no doubt a major business and clothing designs one of the core assets. In considering this, it is therefore a surprise that businesses that are operating within this industry within this industry are not given the opportunity to do more to protect the designs that they have. This paper puts forward the assertion that based on the case law of J Choo(Jersey) Limited v Towerstone Limited and Others, the system of intellectual property protection available in United Kingdom law is not fit for use in the fashion industry in its present condition.

In today’s society, fashion rules the teen and young adult generations. Billions of dollars are spent each year on designer brands such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Off-White. At the same time that these large amounts of money are being spent of materialistic aspects of fashion, people in third world countries are struggling greatly. Instead of money being spent on expensive clothing, it could serve a greater purpose by being donated to countries who are in dire need. Absurd amounts of money in first world countries are spent on designer brands, while third world countries struggle to even get their hands on any clothing.

They hate to discuss the possibility of forgery, let alone admit that they may have purchased or displayed a fake. They don’t want to discredit themselves and they don’t want to be seen as less-than-intelligent if they’ve been fooled. This attitude absolutely has to change if forgery is to slow down and hopefully cease. The current market nearly encourages forgery because collectors are so willing to spend outrageous sums on previously unknown pieces and they are not doing enough research before handing over their money. Collectors do not want to acknowledge forgeries and risk losing money they’ve invested and who could blame them? However, is a forger is caught they can be held responsible and forced to pay restitution to those who purchased their forged pieces. Additionally, there has in recent years been a development of a market for forgeries by well known forgers. Wolfgang Beltracchi put on an art show after he was released from prison (McCamley) and Elmyr de Hory’s fakes have sold for up to $20,000 and there are even people making forgeries of his forgeries (Jackman,

Typically, these factories are located outside of the United States, and with cheap and readily available labor, the knockoff designs can be created in a matter of hours and shipped to stores months before the original version. These companies are able to replicate the original designs almost perfectly, and for much less money, as well. In turn, chain retailers like Bloomingdale’s, Urban Outfitters, and Forever 21 then purchase hundreds of these clothes and promptly sell them to consumers way before the original designs even have a chance to make their debut (Wilson). The biggest problem with this is that fashion design is an art form in itself, and with duplicates, the creative and original credit of the designers are lost. American consumers can no longer tell what garments in a store are original and which have been duplicated (“Stop Fashion Design Piracy”). From a moral perspective, this is essentially burying the recognition that independent designers deserve for their work.

Finally, LVMH must protect its brand against counterfeit and dilution. With the recent expansion of the internet and globalization, availability of products has grown to new heights. In order to keep the brand management that LVMH desires, it must tightly control the availability so not to dilute the market and lower the perception of their brand. Also with the increased knowledge and resources of counterfeiting, LVMH needs to keep a grasp on illegal goods. Not only are the goods becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish real from fake, but the channels of distribution of counterfeit products have increased. Europe customs believe that 75% of counterfeit luxury goods originated in China or Hong Kong. Online stores such as EBay also have seen a large amount