The Fine Line Between Inspiration and Imitation: Delving into The Intersection of Fashion Dupes, Law and Society

Abstract

In the evolving fashion industry, dupes are not a novel circumstance yet they have been shaking the fashion trend due to the openness of information through social media, particularly the short-video culture like TikTok. This phenomenon in society questions the objective of Intellectual Property (“IP”) Law, especially Trademarks, which upholds the creativity of individual minds instead of imitating under the guise of dupes. This study will delve into three main aspects regarding the increasing trend of fashion dupes, from the impact on social culture, the economic realm, and the Intellectual Property Rights itself while also comparing and contrasting with other jurisdictions to understand how other IP laws treat the issue in question. This writing uses a normative approach utilizing statutory, historical and comparative approaches. The data collection covers primary and secondary resources that mainly come from legal literature and online documents. The result of the study shows that the dupe culture is concerning in those three aspects, pertinently the legal certainty. Dupe has changed the consumer behaviour, damage the environemental aspect and the negative treatment to labors. In terms of economic, the price elasticity has been increasing due to the easy access towards high-end brand through its duplicates. Many people will rely on duplicating while remaining justifiable under the IP Law and it gies dupe product in the gray area of IP Law, especially trademarks.