I have been using MayaCloth for my job, and I cannot duplicate the clothobject. May be, I used drag control for moving the cloth before. is that the reason? please help me!
This might not be the answer, but have you tried selecting the DUPLICATE UPSTREAM GRAPH check box in the Duplicate > Option Box? I think that will allow the object to behave like the original cloth.
Depending what you want to do with it, I would try to instance it....
greetings