Perfumes Clone House Vs Perfume Fakes - Is there a difference?

Over the last 10-15 years, the fragrance industry has really changed. I remember when I first started selling on Ebay in 2004, there was me and another seller called spottydog101, he/she was selling on Ebay before me, and then when I started it was just me and them, I went wide with my fragrances and soon had a much larger variety than Spottydog101, they soon stopped selling and it was only me left. Anyway, a little bit of history there, but the point I am trying to make is that back then, smellalikes, clones, copycat fragrances were virtually unknown, I really had to educate people about what I was selling and how what I am selling is not fake perfumes but rather a clone perfume or clone fragrance, but then the question arises whats the difference between the 2...let me explain.

In actual fact, there are 3 types of smellalike fragrances.

1) Fake Perfumes

2) Clone Perfumes

3) Inspired Perfumes

The fake perfumes, are trying to copy every single detail of the original product, from scent profile, to bottle, wording on the box, the box itself, literally everything, bascially a knock off, and selling it and passing it off as an original. This is illegal and is considered as deception as you are deceiving the customer or buyer into thinking the product is the real thing when it clearly isn't.

Clone perfumes produced by clone houses are perfumes which tend to copy the scent profile only and the sellers clearly display and let the buyer know the fragrance is their own composition and will smell similar to xyz. The packaging, the bottle, will not look like the original brand, so there is no element of deception. 

Lastly, inspired perfumes are basically just that, a fragrance has been created with similar notes to another fragrance and has it's own notes as well, its not a 1 to 1 copy, or it maybe 1 to 1 but its not mentioned, or there is a slight tweak to the formulation so that the top or heart or base notes smell different. The bottle is different, the packaging is different, and if someone hasn't smelt the original fragrance, then they won't even know that the bottle they are holding has been inspired by another fragrance. This is a common trend these days, if there is a popular fragrance, why not just bottle it in your own bottle rather than creating a new smell and risking it's success.

I hope this answers the question you had in your mind about the difference between fake perfumes, clone perfumes and inspired perfumes.