One of the biggest driving forces in the fashion industry today is the constant introduction of new trends and the opportunity for designers to showcase their creativity. Therefore, when individuality is stolen or copied from a designer, the consequences can be unpleasant. Known as “design piracy,” this widespread reproduction of designs has actually existed for decades. At the federal level, not much has been done to avoid the resulting moral and economic consequences. However, despite the fact that designers lose both independent recognition and profit for their work, in the long run, fashion piracy actually helps grow the industry by quickly moving styles through society to make way for the next line of innovative designs. lack of legal property protection in the US fashion industry, design piracy has become a major trend. Designers really only have trademark protection, meaning that virtually anyone can reproduce their design and sell it as their own, as long as they leave out the actual trademark label. In other words, designs are only protected if the characteristics of the garments are sufficiently unique to be considered “one of a kind”, or if the design has a pattern or graphic image (Blakley). In our society today, those involved in the fashion industry must constantly work to present the newest styles and keep up with everyone else. However, although creating these innovative designs is very expensive and time-consuming, the combination of advanced garment manufacturing and low-cost labor makes duplicating these designs much quicker, cheaper and easier. With current technology, photos and videos of the revealed concepts can be immediately seen by people all over the world. Who wants it...... middle of paper...... future growth. Works Cited Diliberto, Gioia. "The paradox of piracy in fashion". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, October 10, 2007. Web. February 12, 2014.Johanna Blakley: Lessons from Fashion's Free Culture. TEDxUSC, May 2010. Web. 11 February 2014. Sprigman, Christopher. "The Paradox of Piracy in the Fashion Industry | Public Knowledge." The paradox of piracy in the fashion industry | Public knowledge. NP, 22 August 2006. Web. 11 February 2014."Stop fashion design piracy." Stop piracy in fashion design. Np, nd Web. 12 February 2014. Surowiecki, James. "The Piracy Paradox." The New Yorker. Np, September 24, 2007. Web. February 11, 2014. Weisburd, Steven I. “The Design Piracy Prohibition Act.” New York Law Journal. Np, Jan. 20, 2009. Web. Feb. 11, 2014. Wilson, Eric. “Before the models can turn around, the imitations fly.” The New York Times. The New York Times, September 4, 2007. Web. February 11. 2014.