The first time one of Calgary designer Nina Kharey\u2019s designs was copied, it came with an air of flattery.<\/p>\n
Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, wore a $1,085 sleeveless trench from Kharey\u2019s brand Nonie out with husband Prince Harry. The appearance heaped so much attention on Nonie that when copycats sprang up, Kharey ignored them because her trenches were selling and she figured everyone would know who made the original.<\/p>\n
The second time one of her designs \u2014 a red and pink silk wrap dress \u2014 was copied, there was no celebrity champion, so it was hard to swallow and as she soon realized, pretty much impossible to stop.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually talked to a fashion lawyer, and (they said) there\u2019s nothing you can do,\u201d recalled Kharey, who now focuses most of her time on Folds, a medical scrubs company she started in 2021 that is also being targeted by copycats.<\/p>\n
While Kharey has taken a grin-and-bear-it approach to imitators, others like Lululemon Athletica Inc., Aritzia Inc. and Nike have seemingly grown so fed up they\u2019re resorting to legal action.<\/p>\n
Experts and victims understand the itch to defend original designs, especially for household brands that sink millions into product innovation, but they say lawsuits won\u2019t do much to tamp down on copycats.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Canada and in the United States, we have a pretty scant copyright law coverage of fashion, so a lot of copying is perfectly legal,\u201d said Christopher Sprigman, co-author of \u201cThe Knockoff Economy: How Imitation Sparks Innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, you can\u2019t copy brand names, but you can copy, for the most part, designs and that\u2019s how the fashion industry has worked forever in North America.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s that nature that\u2019s allowed trendy colour palettes, garment styles and cuts to trickle down from runways to mass retailers every season as brands try to cash in on what\u2019s hot. Think of it like that scene in \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada,\u201d where Meryl Streep\u2019s character Miranda Priestly tells Andy Sachs, played by Anne Hathaway, that the lumpy blue sweater she fished out of a department store clearance bin was likely inspired by Oscar de la Renta\u2019s cerulean gowns and Yves Saint Laurent\u2019s cerulean military jackets.<\/p>\n
The most brazen copycats go much further than using the same shade. They copy everything from a product\u2019s design to its logo in hopes of making a quick buck off people wanting a product so indistinguishable from the original.<\/p>\n
If someone uses your trademarked logo or name, you can often go after them and win, Sprigman said.<\/p>\n
The trouble is many copycats work clandestinely overseas, making them hard to identify, track down and serve with a lawsuit.<\/p>\n
Others don\u2019t make use of another brand\u2019s trademarks. They just mimic the product design \u2014 a facet that\u2019s much harder to protect.<\/p>\n
In Kharey\u2019s case, a big box retailer made a red and pink wrap dress that looked exactly like Nonie\u2019s. Then, competitors mimicked the sleek silhouettes, necklines, waistbands, technical fabrics and silicone-tipped drawstrings Folds uses.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s super frustrating because first of all, it acknowledges that\u2019s a great design you had \u2026 but then these big guys come and they make it a lot cheaper, but it looks the same, and they end up benefiting,\u201d Kharey said.<\/p>\n
Lululemon had the same experience last year, when it filed a lawsuit after it found Costco selling clothing it said resembled its own Scuba hoodies and sweatshirts, Define jackets and ABC pants.<\/p>\n
The alleged copies were sold for a fraction of what Lululemon charges and were made by Costco\u2019s private label Kirkland or apparel brands Danskin, Jockey and Spyder.<\/p>\n
None had Lululemon\u2019s logo, but the company complained they were still difficult to distinguish from authentic Lululemon products and thus, they should be paid damages the business has yet to quantify. Costco denied any infringement and said it has always acted in good faith.<\/p>\n
Many don\u2019t pursue cases like Lululemon\u2019s because they\u2019re very expensive and usually so time consuming that by the time they wrap, the fashion industry has often already moved onto the next trend, said Erin McEwen, a trademark agent at Nelligan Law in Ottawa.<\/p>\n
But they\u2019re not impossible to win \u2014 if you have the right tools.<\/p>\n
McEwen said you\u2019re more likely to be successful if you register an industrial design with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. Registrations protect novel visual elements in two- or three-dimensional goods, like the shape of a Coca-Cola bottle or Croc shoe, for 15 years, making it harder for people to mimic your design.<\/p>\n
In Canada, Lululemon has 184 industrial design filings on everything from shoe soles and zipper pulls to jackets and vests that have a detachable portion you can configure into a pillow.<\/p>\n
Companies can also trademark three-dimensional shapes like the form of a Toblerone bar or their product\u2019s packaging, if it\u2019s novel. Those trademarks last 10 years but can be renewed, McEwen said. Industrial design registrations can\u2019t be renewed, so when they expire they\u2019re fair game for others to use.<\/p>\n
But having either or both makes a case stronger because it\u2019s like a proactive piece of ownership, McEwen said.<\/p>\n
Lately, some companies have pursued an extra \u2014 and unusual \u2014 layer of protection. Lululemon and Aritzia trademarked the phrases \u201cLululemon dupe\u201d and \u201cAritzia dupe.\u201d Dupe is a slang term popularized recently on social media to describe items that have been duplicated or copied.<\/p>\n
The trademark keeps others from marketing their products with the original\u2019s brand name, but Sprigman said it\u2019s basically \u201ca lawyer trick\u201d that is \u201cunlikely to work,\u201d in part because most copycats are smart enough not to market themselves with their competitor\u2019s name.<\/p>\n
While the trademarks would allow the companies to go after influencers who market items as dupes of their brands, he said those lawsuits wouldn\u2019t be lucrative and could be \u201ca public-relations nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thus, as hard as it is to let copycats go, Kharey thinks victims are best off taking it as a sign that they\u2019re doing something right and heading back to the drawing board to make the next product everyone wants to own and yes, copy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s stressful like that,\u201d she said. \u201cBut at the end of the day \u2026 if you\u2019re making a superior product, you would hope that the customer would be able to recognize who the original brand is and feel the difference as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 26, 2026.<\/p>\n
Companies in this story: (TSX:ATZ)<\/p>\n
Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first time one of Calgary designer Nina Kharey\u2019s designs was copied, it came with an air of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-629853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-calgary","10":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}