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Journal of Intellectual Property Law

Abstract

Fast fashion, characterized as clothing made quickly and cheaply, can be seen as a solution for consumers who want to participate in current fashion trends at price points they can afford. While creating a solution for consumers, fast fashion creates even greater problems for both the environment and the designers responsible for creating the clothing everyone wants to wear.

In order to keep up with consumer demand for low-cost, trendy items, many fast fashion retailers look to the work of other designers to determine what to create and sell. In doing so, the line between inspiration and imitation may be crossed, with little intellectual property protection in place to protect designers or provide consequences for fast fashion copyists. Once a design enters production, the harm extends to the environment with impacts at each stage of the clothing life cycle.

This Note analyzes the relationship between fast fashion’s environmental destruction and the insufficiency of current intellectual property law in protecting fashion designers from fast fashion copyists. With fast fashion at the root of both issues, this Note argues for a new amendment to the Vessel Hull Design Protection Act following in the footsteps of H.R. 2511 and the Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prevention Act. In making this argument, this Note further delves into the inadequacies and limitations of current environmental laws and regulations regarding fast fashion production. Finally affording fashion designers the robust intellectual property protection they need will not only deter and decrease production of fast fashion knockoffs, but also reduce fast fashion production—lessening the severe impact of the fast fashion industry on the environment.

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