Identifying Apparel Attributes: The Relationship between Risks, Perceived Copyright Infringement and Purchase Intention of Knockoff Fashion Apparel Products

The success of fast fashion retailers has some industry leaders calling for copyright protection for apparel and closely aligned fashion products (Cline, 2012). Establishing criteria to determine what constitutes apparel copyright infringement is extremely difficult, as few designs are completely original (Raustiala & Sprigman, 2006). Apparel attributes are pertinent to purchase intention of fashion apparel and could influence perceived copyright infringement of knockoff fashion apparel products. The primary purpose of this study was to identify prominent visual fashion apparel attributes that could determine perceived copyright infringement. A secondary purpose was to examine the relationships among fashion apparel attributes, perceived copyright infringement, perceived risk, and purchase intention of knockoff fashion apparel. Researchers have identified apparel attribute factors including: Quality (Wee, Tan, & Cheok, 1995), appearance (Abraham-Murali & Littrell, 1995; Zhang, Li, Gong, and Wu, 2002), aesthetics (Abraham-Murali & Littrell, 1995) and functionality (Zhang, et al., 2002)