Giorgio Armani Weighs in On Counterfeits

Time Magazine collected ten questions from readers around the world to ask the designer Giorgio Armani.

Of the ten questions asked, two of them dealt with Intellectual Property rights:

Q: Does the Armani brand suffer a lot of damage because of counterfeit products? David Remenyik, BUDAPEST

A: Personally, I think counterfeit products are good because their existence shows that we create something people want to copy. Professionally, it causes big problems because it creates products with your name on them that are not controlled by you.

Q: You recently accused Dolce & Gabbana of copying one of your designs. Do you plan to pursue this claim in court? Alice Goodman, SYDNEY

A: No. This happened at the end of a small press conference. One of my colleagues brought me a photo of this pair of pants. I said, very nonchalantly, "Look--great designers like Dolce & Gabbana copy us!" I was joking, it was not serious, but naturally the press picked up on it and splashed it all over the headlines.

If you would like to read all ten questions and Mr. Armani's answers you can find the whole interview here: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1879189,00.html

If you are interested in the pants (and the story) referenced in question #2 in this post, check it out here: http://www.gaywired.com/Article.cfm?ID=21382 Dolce and Gabbana had some fighting words which included this quote about copying from Picasso: "As Picasso used to say, copying from others is inevitable, but copying from oneself leads to sterility," they said.

Ouch.