Where this was said
The Legality of Dupes: 'It Depends' — and Ugg Found Out the Hard Way
At 22:07 · chapter starts 21:10
When it comes to whether dupes are legal, Mia Sato's IP attorney sources all have the same answer: it depends. Fashion items, she notes, are often not legally protectable — a button-down shirt with a lace pattern can't be owned. The Ugg vs. Quince case is a particularly instructive example of this messiness. Ugg sued Quince for making cheaper dupe boots that mimicked its silhouette. The jury agreed the designs were substantially similar — and then invalidated Ugg's design patent entirely, ruling the patent should never have been granted because the design wasn't unique enough. It's a legal catch-22: even if you hold a design patent, a court can strip it from you during the very lawsuit you brought to enforce it.
In the Ugg vs. Quince dupe lawsuit, the jury found Quince's product substantially similar to Ugg's design but invalidated Ugg's design patent, ruling it wasn't unique enough to have been issued.
People can't afford $50,000 Birkins or $400 Lululemon sets, so buying a dupe feels like justice. But others argue dupe culture exploits workers, kills small creators, and rewires our expectations of what things should cost. The debate is as much moral as it is economic.
