Creative Commons

Abstract This dissertation was written as part of the MA in Art, Law and Economy at the Inte r- national Hellenic University. This thesis has as an objective, to project the problem of fashion designs’ cou n- terfeit , faced by the dominant EU fashion companies , and also, to propose the most effective solutions, pr o vided under intellectual property law , in order to protect the f ashion d e sign and further the fashion designer. The f ashion i ndustry, is one of the most competitive and consistently emanating indu s- tries globally. Today’s economic crisis within European Union, has, without doubt, a f- fected the brilliant f ashion w orld in a way, ho wever, fashion designers and fashion companies, can always find clever manners to attract, inspire and gain the a d mi ration of the consumers . Unfortunately, this glamourous fashion world has, also, to conf ront the huge parallel merchandise of counterfeits, which causes tremendous losses for f a- shion businesses annually. This important problem, in combination with the perm a- nent domination of the fashion industry in the Global Markets, has cr e ated the nece s- sity of protection, both of the designer’s name and the c ompany’s brand, but als o of the products that they manu facture. T his protection is afforded by the means of inte l- lectual property l aw . Special thanks to my supervisor Professor Mrs. Irini Stamatoudi, who supported me and provided guidance, in every stag e of my research. Keywords: Intellectual Property, Copyright, Fashion Design , Fashion Industries, Cou n- terfeiting