The Fashion Industry - Intellectual Property Rights and Sustainability in the realm of Fast Fashion and E- Commerce.
(2024) HARN63 20241Department of Business Law
- Abstract
- The fashion industry is one of the largest industries in the world, a multibillion dollar industry on the manufacturing and selling of clothes. With the rise of social media and digitalization of fashion, meaning that brands are carrying over to digital means of showcasing their products like social media, fashion trends have never been more accessible to the general market than ever. However, the fashion trend cycle is decreasing which means trends are rapidly progressing, with the advent of micro trends, fast fashion and counterfeit products re purchased by consumers as an affordable alternative. With this, small businesses and companies that operated offline were faced with negative effects, rather than wanting to buy quality clothing,... (More)
- The fashion industry is one of the largest industries in the world, a multibillion dollar industry on the manufacturing and selling of clothes. With the rise of social media and digitalization of fashion, meaning that brands are carrying over to digital means of showcasing their products like social media, fashion trends have never been more accessible to the general market than ever. However, the fashion trend cycle is decreasing which means trends are rapidly progressing, with the advent of micro trends, fast fashion and counterfeit products re purchased by consumers as an affordable alternative. With this, small businesses and companies that operated offline were faced with negative effects, rather than wanting to buy quality clothing, it seemed for many buyers, the idea was to buy for cheap and throw it away after a few wears. However, many brands are faced with infringement from fast fashion, as fast fashion brands and counterfeits tend to mock or copy their designs and infringe on another brand’s intellectual property rights (IPRs). On top of that, the environmental concerns is growing since the pandemic, an emphasis on the focus of climate change and how fast fashion contributes to greenhouse gases and emissions in the atmosphere, as well as bad labor practices and synthetic cheap textiles that pollute the world’s rivers. Brands are pushing for a sustainable agenda, but with fast fashion infringement constantly improving, the need for IPRs to be safeguarded is essential. This thesis aims to explore the challenges posed by fast fashion and e-commerce, between the challenges of IPRs that brands are faced with as well as the intersectionality that sustainability centers itself in. Where does intellectual property protection: trademark, copyright, design, or patent apply when questioning other e—commerce based fast fashion and regular fast fashion brands, practices on infringement while producing and selling their own products? And what is the criteria for sustainability practices within the fashion industry? How does the second- hand market fuel sustainability and what could this mean for IP protection? Beginning with an overview of the fast fashion industry and the role of e- commerce, this thesis then explains the different types IPRs—copyrights, designs, patents, and trademarks—and examines how these rights are infringed upon by fast fashion and e-commerce brands, followed by case studies and legal analyses of frameworks developed and enacted in the European Union, the research aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the current landscape of IPRs in fashion, the challenges posed by fast fashion and e-commerce, and the potential pathways for promoting sustainability within the industry, including upcycling and
5
second hand fashion. The thesis focuses on the implications of greenwashing and the environmental impact of fast fashion, highlighting the detrimental effects on sustainability, and how the intersectionality of sustainability and IPRs co-exist. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9158961
- author
- Vivekanandan, Shreyas LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- HARN63 20241
- year
- 2024
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- intellectual property law, European Union, sustainability, fashion, fast fashion, e-commerce, counterfeit, second-hand, infringement
- language
- English
- id
- 9158961
- date added to LUP
- 2024-06-13 13:48:17
- date last changed
- 2024-06-14 03:41:17
@misc{9158961,
abstract = {{The fashion industry is one of the largest industries in the world, a multibillion dollar industry on the manufacturing and selling of clothes. With the rise of social media and digitalization of fashion, meaning that brands are carrying over to digital means of showcasing their products like social media, fashion trends have never been more accessible to the general market than ever. However, the fashion trend cycle is decreasing which means trends are rapidly progressing, with the advent of micro trends, fast fashion and counterfeit products re purchased by consumers as an affordable alternative. With this, small businesses and companies that operated offline were faced with negative effects, rather than wanting to buy quality clothing, it seemed for many buyers, the idea was to buy for cheap and throw it away after a few wears. However, many brands are faced with infringement from fast fashion, as fast fashion brands and counterfeits tend to mock or copy their designs and infringe on another brand’s intellectual property rights (IPRs). On top of that, the environmental concerns is growing since the pandemic, an emphasis on the focus of climate change and how fast fashion contributes to greenhouse gases and emissions in the atmosphere, as well as bad labor practices and synthetic cheap textiles that pollute the world’s rivers. Brands are pushing for a sustainable agenda, but with fast fashion infringement constantly improving, the need for IPRs to be safeguarded is essential. This thesis aims to explore the challenges posed by fast fashion and e-commerce, between the challenges of IPRs that brands are faced with as well as the intersectionality that sustainability centers itself in. Where does intellectual property protection: trademark, copyright, design, or patent apply when questioning other e—commerce based fast fashion and regular fast fashion brands, practices on infringement while producing and selling their own products? And what is the criteria for sustainability practices within the fashion industry? How does the second- hand market fuel sustainability and what could this mean for IP protection? Beginning with an overview of the fast fashion industry and the role of e- commerce, this thesis then explains the different types IPRs—copyrights, designs, patents, and trademarks—and examines how these rights are infringed upon by fast fashion and e-commerce brands, followed by case studies and legal analyses of frameworks developed and enacted in the European Union, the research aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the current landscape of IPRs in fashion, the challenges posed by fast fashion and e-commerce, and the potential pathways for promoting sustainability within the industry, including upcycling and
5
second hand fashion. The thesis focuses on the implications of greenwashing and the environmental impact of fast fashion, highlighting the detrimental effects on sustainability, and how the intersectionality of sustainability and IPRs co-exist.}},
author = {{Vivekanandan, Shreyas}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{The Fashion Industry - Intellectual Property Rights and Sustainability in the realm of Fast Fashion and E- Commerce.}},
year = {{2024}},
}