The problem of stealing or illegally taking an idea or product design and passing it off or selling it as your own. Counterfeiting, or product piracy, in 2005 accounted for approximately $600 billion in lost revenue globally. It also accounts for the loss of more than 750,000 American jobs according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Designers Coco Chanel and Madeleine Vionnet were quite successful in bringing copyists to justice beginning in the nineteenth century. However, it was not until the twenty-first century that designers, especially those in the luxury category such as Chanel, Gucci, Hermès, Prada, and Louis Vuitton have aggressively pursued and won huge settlements against counterfeiters. The United States has joined forces with the European Union to combat counterfeiting at their borders by sharing customs data and reporting intellectual property theft violations. They are also calling for cooperation among emerging markets, such as China and Russia, to boost enforcement efforts through the World Trade Organization (WTO). In France, the luxury-goods trade association Comité Colbert continues to advocate for stricter anticounterfeit laws.
Historical Dictionary of the Fashion Industry. Francesca Sterlacci and Joanne Arbuckle.