Daily LInks
1. How One Author Pushed the Limits of AI Copyright. “We’re seeing the Copyright Office struggling with where to draw the line” when it comes to granting registrations for works involving AI. – Read More on Wired
2. Luxury brands have a new headache in China: Stingy shoppers are returning their goods, erasing up to 75% of their sales value. “I can imagine there are plenty of people in the luxury category taking out and showing off a luxury item for an evening, earning the status, and then returning it at no cost.” – Read More on Fortune
3. China on Track to Become World’s Largest Luxury Market. After fluctuating significantly during the pandemic, China’s personal luxury market is believed to have rebounded to $69B last year, due largely to a recovery in international travel, PwC said in the report. – Read More on Caixin Global
4. The AI hype bubble is deflating. Now comes the hard part. The road to widespread adoption and business success is still looking long, twisty and full of roadblocks, say tech executives, technologists and financial analysts. – Read More on the Washington Post
5. Spanish Beauty Group Puig Targets Close to $15 Billion Valuation in IPO. The company aims to raise up to €3B, with the controlling shareholder, which is in turn controlled by the holding company of the Puig family, offering €1.36B and €1.25B being raised via new shares. – Read More on the WSJ
6. Three policy changes that need to happen to make fashion more sustainable. We should be eliminating sales tax on secondhand items, providing tax credits for adopting circular business models, and spurring sustainable innovation with government grants. – Read More on Fast Co.
1. Ralph Lauren’s ‘cluster approach’ to growing its business in China. China is a key market for Ralph Lauren, and its signature products – polo shirts emblazoned with the company’s iconic logo, cable-knit sweaters, and blazers – are now a hit with Chinese customers amid changing consumer tastes and turbulence in the luxury sector. – Read More on SCMP
2. Louis Vuitton and Dior Are Still Wardrobe Staples. Investors have seized on LVMH’s performance as a sign of stability for the luxury industry. But it will probably be among the best. – Read More on Bloomberg
3. What’s driving China’s unstoppable secondhand luxury market? China’s secondhand luxury market is tipped to grow to $30 billion (217 billion RMB) in 2025 from $8 billion (58 billion RMB) in 2020 thanks to celebrities, young consumers, and tech advances. – Read More on Jing Daily
4. RELATED READ: From Gucci to Rolex Certified, Luxury Brands Continue to Test Resale. While luxury brands have traditionally been able to exercise almost complete control over the marketing and distribution of their offerings, the rise – and robustness – of luxury resale has chipped away at that. – Read More on TFL
5. “Pablo Escobar” cannot be registered as a trademark, EU court rules. The EU General Court determined that the trademark would be perceived as being against the “fundamental values and moral standards” that prevail in Spain, an EU member state. – Read More on the FT
6. Alfa Romeo changes name of new ‘Milano’ model to ease tensions with Italy. “Although we think the ‘Milano’ name met all legal requirements, we took the decision to change it to ease relations with the Italian government,” Alfa Romeo’s CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato said in a press conference. – Read More on Reuters
1. Temu likely to face tougher online content rules as EU users soar. Under the European Union’s Digital Services Act, companies with more than 45M users are labelled very large online platforms and are required to do more to fight illegal and harmful content as well as counterfeit products on their platforms. – Read More on Reuters
2. RELATED READ: Digital Services Act Could Prompt Penalties of 6% of Brands’ Annual Revenue. The Digital Services Act will counter the sale of illegal products and services on online marketplaces and aims to combat illegal and harmful content on online platforms, such as social media. – Read More on TFL
3. How a Supply Chain Startup Is Making Recycling in the Apparel Industry Scalable. “We’ve diverted more than two million textiles from landfills to date. We’ve barely scratched the surface of what this could be.” – Read More on Inc.
4. LVMH Sales Growth Slows Along With Demand for Handbags. Organic revenue at the luxury group’s fashion and leather goods unit (its biggest division) rose 2% in the first quarter, Paris-based LVMH said. That compares with 18% growth a year earlier at the unit. – Read More on Bloomberg
5. Timberland loses US court bid to trademark boot-design features. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s decision that features of the boots including its sole color, eyelets and stitching were not distinctive enough to identify the boots as Timberland products. – Read More on Reuters
1. Hermes Can Surpass Vuitton as Luxury’s Biggest Brand, Citi Says. The Birkin bag maker’s sales are set to hit the “symbolic” €20 billion level by 2027 or before, Thomas Chauvet wrote in a note dated April 12 – a milestone that the Louis Vuitton fashion label reached in 2022. Hermes generated group revenue of €13.4 billion in 2023. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. AI-generated models could bring more diversity to the fashion industry — or leave it with less. Modeling agencies and companies may be taking advantage of models by using their photos to train AI systems without their consent or compensation. – Read More on the AP
3. Apple denies violating US court order in Epic Games lawsuit. The Apple filing criticized what it called an attempt by Epic to make Apple’s “tools and technologies available to developers for free.” Epic, it said, wanted the court “to micromanage Apple’s business operations in a way that would increase Epic’s profitability.” – Read More on Reuters
4. Retail sales rose sharply in the first quarter — and could boost U.S. GDP. Sales at retailers rose a robust 0.7% in March and outlays in the prior month were also stronger than previously reported, indicating the economy got a boost from consumer spending in the first quarter. – Read More on MarketWatch
5. Investors are growing increasingly wary of AI. Both private investment — that is, investments in startups from VCs — and corporate investment — mergers and acquisitions — in the AI industry were on the downswing in 2023 versus the year prior. – Read More on TechCrunch
6. RELATED READ: A Running List of AI Funding and M&A. Not limited to having an impact in Silicon Valley, alone, generative AI is bringing with it the potential “to change how everything from the written word to art is created.” – Read More on TFL
1. How the U.S. government is regulating AI. The Senate Task Force on AI, established in 2019, has passed at least 15 bills into law that focus on research and risk assessment. But when compared with measures passed by the EU in 2024, the U.S. regulatory environment appears to be relatively relaxed. – Read More on CNBC
2. How Express went from being a top apparel retailer to on the brink of bankruptcy. Companies like Express are dealing with mounting pressure from e-commerce giants, many of whom are international companies but are stepping up marketing in the U.S. – Read More on Modern Retail
3. Spanish Beauty Group Puig Targets $15B Valuation in IPO. At $15 billion, Puig would be worth more than some beauty heavyweights such as Coty or Shiseido. But it would remain a relatively small player compared to industry giants such as Estée Lauder. – Read More on the WSJ
4. Europe stands firm against US-driven ESG backlash. Steady investor demand in Europe for environmental and socially responsible investments and wide-ranging regulation are helping Europe’s finance industry withstand political pressures that have pushed some U.S. peers to backtrack on their green agendas. – Read More on Reuters
5. Founder of Eponymous Luxury Fashion Empire Cavalli Dies at Age of 83. Italian designer Roberto Cavalli, known for his slinky leopard-print dresses and other flamboyant garments, has died at aged 83. – Read More on Bloomberg
1. Rent the Runway shares get caught up in AI frenzy, surge over 200%. “Rent the Runway has just become the poster girl for investors that believe AI can help small business and not just large behemoths,” said Michael Ashley Schulman, chief investment officer at Running Point Capital Advisors. – Read More on Reuters
2. Your Boss Doesn’t Want to Speak Out on Social Issues. A new survey of 600 C-suite leaders shows that nearly nine in 10 are wary of wading into world events. Some 87% said that taking a public stance on current issues poses a greater risk for their company than not saying anything. – Read More on Bloomberg
3. Korea advised to adopt EU regulatory model to prevent impacts of AliExpress’ rapid growth. This suggestion came in reaction to unceasing controversies surrounding the rapid inroads made by the two Chinese companies due to their alleged weak customer protections and inappropriate sales methods. – Read More on Korea Times
4. China’s Suzhou city plans supercharged cross-border e-commerce business after Shein and Temu success. With its aggressively priced apparel made in China, Shein has seen explosive growth over the past few years to now account for a fifth of the global fast-fashion sales. – Read More on SCMP
5. Rise of fast-fashion Shein, Temu roils global air cargo industry. Temu and ByteDance’s TikTok Shop, which recently began online shopping in the U.S., ship the majority of their products directly from factories in China to shoppers by air in individually addressed packages. – Read More on Reuters
1. USPTO warns patent lawyers not to pass off AI inventions as human. The office issued new guidelines cautioning patent attorneys against omitting AI involvement from their patent applications and using AI to draft documents without verifying the underlying information, which it said could result in “critical misstatements and omissions.” – Read More on Reuters
2. How to Stop Your Data From Being Used to Train AI. As the lawsuits and investigations around generative AI and its opaque data practices pile up, there have been small moves to give people more control over what happens to what they post online. – Read More on Wired
3. Jean Paul Gaultier Owner Puig Plans $3.25 Billion IPO in Spain. The company intends to use proceeds from its IPO to refinance the acquisitions of additional stakes in Sweden’s Byredo and U.K.’s Charlotte Tilbury and to fund future strategic investments. – Read More on the WSJ
4. Zara owner demands clarity from cotton certifier accused of standard breaches. Inditex demanded more transparency from a certifier that vets some of the cotton used by the Spanish fashion giant following an investigation that found evidence of malpractice by two Brazilian certified cotton producers. – Read More on Reuters
5. US corporate bankruptcies pick up pace in March. With corporate borrowing under pressure, bankruptcy cases have steadily increased since the beginning of the year and are likely to remain elevated as expectations of near-term rate cuts appear increasingly improbable. – Read More on S&P Global
6. South Africa’s pre-owned luxury goods boom. A growing middle class is fueling rapid growth across parts of Africa for pre-owned luxury goods. – See More on CNN
1. A patchwork of state AI laws is creating ‘a mess’ for US businesses. 30 states (plus the District of Columbia) have either proposed or adopted new laws placing constraints, either directly or indirectly, on how AI systems are designed and used. – Read More on Yahoo
2. RELATED READ: A Running Tracker of AI Legislation. A growing number of new AI-focused bills coming from lawmakers at the state and federal levels are worth keeping an eye on. – Read More on TFL
3. China uncertainty clouds outlook for luxury sector. “All growth engines have been off for number of quarters,” and Chinese tourists in Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore also do not seem to be the “spending kind,” according to analysts at HSBC. – Read More on Reuters
4. Luxury Goods Market in Flux: Brands Must Adapt to Survive, Says Kearney Expert. With sustainability, regulations and ongoing consumer pressure are pushing brands to prioritize sustainable practices throughout their supply chains. – Read More on Yahoo
5. Why Naples is the fake designer goods capital of Europe. The city has a stake in every phase of the counterfeit fashion supply chain, from manufacturing and warehousing to distribution and sales – all of them dominated by the region’s home-grown Camorra mafia. – Read More on SCMP
1. China’s e-commerce model eclipses Western efforts YNAP, Farfetch. Though personalized experiences are important, for wider appeal, the role of D2C that Tmall has thrived on is something that businesses in the West can learn from. – Read More on Jing
2. Rolex CEO Says It’s Risky to View Watches Like Stocks. The head of Rolex SA said viewing luxury watches as investments is dangerous following a surge in interest from speculators during the pandemic. “I don’t like it when people compare watches with stocks. This sends the wrong message.” – Read More on Bloomberg
3. RELATED READ: The Potential Paradox of the Investment Handbag. The prospect of handbags as assets is not without nuance, particularly when compared to things like the S&P 500 and gold ETFs and futures, and it is not without skeptics. – Read More on TFL
4. Nvidia hit with trademark lawsuit over “Modulus” AI software. The chipmaker has been sued for trademark infringement in Texas federal court by financial-technology company Modulus Financial Engineering over the chipmaker’s Modulus artificial-intelligence software. – Read More on Reuters
5. How Tech Giants Cut Corners to Harvest Data for A.I. OpenAI, Google and Meta ignored corporate policies, altered their own rules and discussed skirting copyright law as they sought online information to train their newest artificial intelligence systems. – Read More on the New York Times
1. Amazon quietly launches Bazaar to sell fast-fashion and lifestyle products in India. Amazon has quietly introduced a “special store” called Bazaar in India, featuring affordable and trendy fashion and lifestyle products, as it ramps up efforts against Walmart-owned Flipkart and Reliance’s Ajio. – Read More on TechCrunch
2. Louis Vuitton Totes and Dior Micro Bags Can Save Luxury. After pricing out aspirational shoppers, luxury brands need new ways of reconnecting with them. Affordable, smaller products go a long way. – Read More in Bloomberg
3. Luxury revolution sweeping India: What’s fueling the shift in consumer preferences? According to recent data from the Reserve Bank of India, credit card spending in India experienced a remarkable 26% year-on-year surge in February. – Read More on Mint
4. For AI firms, anything “public” is fair game. The term, perhaps by design, sounds like “public domain” – which refers to information that is no longer subject to copyright protection or otherwise made freely available. – Read More on Axios
5. Coinbase to face revived lawsuit by customers. The Second Circuit revived a lawsuit by Coinbase customers who accused the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange of illegally selling unregistered securities and failing to register as a broker-dealer. – Read More on Yahoo