The Use of AI in Protecting Fashion Designs

I thought I’d share this interesting article I came across titled The Dupe Killer, Tracking Copies with AI. Dupe Killer is an intellectual property tool used by Deloitte for luxury fashion brands. The tool is used to monitor for visual design infringements by searching for copies of products based on their shape or configuration. I find this interesting as it combines AI technology with the copyright, trademark and patent world as we have been discussing this term.

Dupe Killer begins with an article of clothing, bag, or shoe that a brand would like it to monitor. It is photographed from every angle, then computer vision techniques are employed to recognize unique features of the design, allowing the AI to detect these features in copies as it monitors the internet. The AI uses a mathematical description that assesses the degree of similarity between the copy and the original product on a scale from 0% to 100%. This allows the tool to recommend which copies are worth taking legal action against via copyright, trademark, or patent law.

What do you all think of the use of AI in the protection of designs in the fashion industry? With fast fashion giants like Shein creating dupes of high-end products, can this afford designers more protection? Or, considering the video watched in class regarding the limited copyright protection afforded to designers, could this technology be used in a better way?

Here is the link to the article if any of you are interested:

https://www.voguebusiness.com/technology/the-dupe-killer-tracking-copies-with-ai