Copyright in fashion - an interesting conundrum!

The first time I saw Johanna Blakley's TED talk on the idea of copyright in fashion it absolutely blew my socks off.  If you haven't seen it, you need to watch it now.

Then, as ideas so often do, I ran across this article in Jezebel which addresses the issue again - but states that some large brands do often sue (and win) cases involving copyright infringement.

Forever 21 knocks off smaller, less established labels — like Trovata, Alexander Wang, and Foley + Corinna, whose printed maxi dress is shown here next to its Forever 21 copy — because those brands are less likely to be able to mount a vigorous legal defense. 

Read more: http://jezebel.com/5742029/forever-21s-bizarre-knockoff-empire#ixzz1CfTJ8FTk

And then, just today, this article was posted about Gap potentially stealing a flickr image (remind anyone of Shepard Fairey vs. the Associated Press)?

So many potentially juicy questions for students!  What are your thoughts?