Daily LInks
1. Adidas After Yeezy: Millions of pairs of unsold Yeezys are sitting in purgatory, stacked in warehouses from the US to China. Sneakers that once would’ve sold out in limited-edition drops, often flipped for much more on StockX and Goat, now await their fate 7 months after one of the biggest corporate meltdowns in history. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. Here’s What Happens When Your Lawyer Uses ChatGPT: The lawyer who created the brief threw himself on the mercy of the court on Thursday, saying in an affidavit that he had used the artificial intelligence program to do his legal research — “a source that has revealed itself to be unreliable.” – Read More on the New York Times
3. Luxury Brands Don’t Just Sell to the Superrich: The top 5% of wealthiest shoppers drive around 40% of global luxury sales, according to a report from Boston Consulting Group. The rest comes from affluent consumers who spend up to €2,000 a year on luxury goods, equivalent to $2,147 at current exchange rates. – Read More on the WSJ
4. Startups, prepare for your AI due diligence: As investors are becoming increasingly aware of the legal, reputational & other risks associated with the use of AI, they understand that the manner in which a company handles such risks, and in turn, its potential exposure to costly legal complications, can impact the value of the company. – Read More on CTech
5. RELATED READ: How Does AI Fit in Companies’ ESG Frameworks? A Look at “Ethical” AI. Business use of AI poses substantial risks, and the companies know it. AI ethics managers expressed concerns about privacy, manipulation, bias, opacity, inequality, and labor displacement. – Read More on TFL
6. E-Commerce Companies Seek a Backdoor Into AI Responses: When search was king, companies could turn to SEO—and paid ads—to land atop search results. ChatGPT has thrown a wrench into that arrangement. – Read More on the Information
1. A Circle That Isn’t Easily Squared: While circularity is appealing in theory, discrete, brand-specific initiatives in the fashion industry have no chance to upend the established linear system. – Read More on SSIR
2. EU top court finds holes in Swiss cheese’s trademark request: The Swiss Emmental cheese, famous for its numerous holes, cannot be trademarked in the European Union, the Court of Justice of the EU ruled Wednesday. – Read More on Politico
3. The guy behind ‘Balenciaga Pope’ wants people to stop stealing his AI-generated images. Besides ensuring he gets credit for his labor, Pablo believes that linking his name to the images will help people identify that they’re fake—an ever-increasing concern. – Read More on Fast Co.
4. RELATED READ: Watermarks Could Help Prove Provenance, Address AI Deepfakes. Watermarks can be baked into the generative AI systems by marking all the training data, after which the generated content will contain the same watermark. – Read More on TFL
5. Consumer wariness constrains earnings for retailers Dick’s, e.l.f. Beauty and Williams-Sonoma: Inflation is weighing on Americans across income levels, and some pandemic changes in consumer behavior are expected to be long-lasting. – Read More on the WSJ
6. TikTok tests AI chatbot in the Philippines: Social media platform TikTok said it is in the early stages of exploring a chatbot called “Tako” that can converse with users about short videos and help them discover content, and is conducting tests with select users in the Philippines. – Read More on Reuters
1. Beyond Saving: In China, Young Shoppers Are Locked Out of Luxury. Over a period of four years, the price of luxury goods has almost doubled. But with their salaries stagnant, young consumers are now forced to decide between indulgence and financial stability. – Read More on Sixth Tone
2. Still Game whisky wins Jack Daniel’s trademark battle. The UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) found in favour of Jack and Victor and said the trademark could proceed to registration. – Read More on the BBC
3. AI in retail: Smarter stores, smarter product design. Analysts say the retail sector’s spending on AI in 2023 will outpace all others except banking. A 40% adoption rate is projected to double by 2025, making retail the industry most heavily invested in intelligent technology. –Read More on Venture Beat
4. A.I. Needs an International Watchdog, ChatGPT Creators Say. Tech companies have spent billions of dollars on A.I., amid the rising concerns about its potential to match human reasoning and destroy jobs. Goldman Sachs estimated recently that A.I. could expose 300M full-time jobs to automation. – Read More on the New York Times
5. A timeline of Amazon’s efforts to curb counterfeit selling: An important part of Amazon’s strategy is expanding the work they do with brands, other third-parties and different coalitions through initiatives like the Anti-Counterfeiting Exchange announced last month. – Read More on Modern Retail
6. Nike CEO John Donahoe says breaking up with China would be ‘disastrous’ amid rising geopolitical tensions: Donahoe said China – the sneaker giant’s third-biggest market by revenue – is vital to Nike. He added it is important to adhere to the country’s local standards, while not violating any “global rules,” such as human rights violations. – Read More on CNBC
1. Prada ‘optimistic’ of Milan listing, heir of fashion group says: “The biggest risk to luxury is too much social tension between rich and poor,” he said of China as well as western markets. – Read More on the FT
2. Luxury goods boom: why prices are rising. Global economic and political factors are driving price rises but there’s another reason: brands know they can get away with it because post-Covid revenge spending continues unabated. – Read More on Spear’s
3. After Nike’s virtual sneaker drop, NFT cynicism is making way for intrigue among marketers: Nike is reaching out to self-identified fans with token-gated content and exclusive experiences in NFT form. It is not “selling a jpeg” or appealing to speculators. – Read More on Modern Retail
4. Luxury brands are using blockchain to enhance the buying process. Cartier uses Aura’s blockchain technology to confirm repair transactions and share the condition of its pieces with owners. – Read More on Retail Insight
5. New Zealand Honey Producers Fail to Secure Manuka Trade Mark. New Zealand’s Intellectual Property Office has declined an application to register “Manuka Honey” as a trade mark, delivering a legal victory to Australian producers who have argued the product is not unique to New Zealand. – Read More on Bloomberg
6. RETRO READ: Pricey Beauty Products, Organized Crime & a Global Legal Battle: The $220M+ Manuka Honey Industry. Like Champagne, Porto wine, and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, which are covered by Protected Geographical Status laws, Manuka honey should be subject to protected status, they argue. – Read More on TFL
1. Why Some Companies Keep Getting Away With Higher Prices: In the past, companies when they would raise prices, they would sort of do it very quietly. A lot of companies tend to be secretive about their strategy and their pricing and they don’t want to share with competitors what they’re doing, and they certainly don’t want consumers to feel like they’re being ripped off. – Read More on the WSJ
2. German Artist Michael Moebius Wins $120M in a ‘Monumental’ Lawsuit Against Hundreds of Foreign Counterfeiters: Moebius sued 399 separate companies based in China and other foreign nations that he claimed had violated his copyright by selling “counterfeit versions” of his images. – Read More on Artnet
3. TikTok users file lawsuit to block Montana ban: Five TikTok users in Montana who create content posted on the short-video app filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to block the state’s new ban on the Chinese-owned platform. – Read More on Reuters
4. Who Is Going to Regulate AI? Whether Congress, the EU, China, or even U.S. states or courts take the lead will determine both the speed and trajectory of AI’s transformation of the global economy, potentially protecting some industries or limiting the ability of all companies to use the tech to interact directly with consumers. – Read More on HBR
5. BeReal v BeReal: Trademark battle set to go to tribunal. A small business owner who is in a naming rights row with a French social media app that has the same name has hit out at its “threatening” conduct. – Read More on BBC
6. Creatives compete in first AI fashion week. How will it impact the industry? “We had over 400 submissions from around the world. And what was interesting for us, there were many people who had submitted amazing collections that you could imagine being on any runway in any of the major cities.” – Read More on Marketplace
1. Supreme Court sidesteps ruling on scope of internet company immunity from lawsuits over user content: The court in a brief unsigned opinion did not decide the legal question of whether liability protections enshrined in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act safeguard YouTube’s alleged conduct. – Read More on NBC
2. Burberry’s Makeover Is Long and Slow: The brand’s sales are weakening in the U.S. Most high-end brands are experiencing the same trend: Bank of America analysts expect U.S. luxury sales to fall by 10% in 2023. – Read More on the WSJ
3. Lightspeed CEO breaks down Q4 earnings, sector growth, luxury spending, outlook: “We’re seeing very strong demand for apparel, jewelry, and especially a strong demand for anything related to experimental hospitality.” – Read More on Yahoo
4. Politicians Need to Learn How AI Works—Fast: There is a significant risk of regulatory capture if major AI and tech companies have too much influence over the direction that regulators take. – Read More on Wired
5. Google, Meta, and Amazon’s next frontier: AI-generated ads. Amazon is working on a way to generate photos and videos for companies looking to create advertising campaigns on the platform. The company is also rumored to be building a conversational AI search tool. – Read More on the Verge
6. How luxury giant LVMH built a recession-proof empire: Through Arnault, LVMH plays “the long-term game,” said Oliver Chen, managing director at TD Cowen. That keeps the company’s brands in good shape in terms of integrity, perception, and relevance. – Read More on CNBC
1. A US company is trying to trademark the shape of its lettuce: We live in a world where absolutely anything can be commoditized, monetized, trademarked, and privatized. If you make a joke on the internet and it goes viral, for example, it’s almost guaranteed that someone will try to profit from it. – Read More on the Guardian
2. EU seeks to simplify customs system, tighten up on e-commerce: The European Commission proposed on Wednesday a reform of customs rules for the surge of incoming packages ordered online and to cope with increased environmental and labor standards and sanctions on imported goods. – Read More on Reuters
3. TikTok’s sister app Douyin says GMV for e-commerce business grew 80 percent last year: The emergence of Douyin as a major e-commerce player has changed China’s online shopping landscape and challenged the dominant positions of Alibaba Group Holding and JD.com. ByteDance is also using its experience at home to help TikTok generate revenue in overseas markets. – Read More on SCMP
4. How to invest in artificial intelligence: Exerts see parallels with the early period of the internet. Generative AI could provide a new pipeline of initial public offerings—and the foundation for the next generation of mega-cap tech firms. – Read More on the Economist
5. The Demand Latency Hangover: The problem is that traditional supply chain management solutions focus on mining historic demand patterns; and as such, are ineffective in translating shifts in markets at the speed of business. – Read More on Forbes
6. AI threatens humanity’s future, 61% of Americans say: Reuters/Ipsos poll. Lawmakers and AI companies are also concerned: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Tuesday testified before U.S. Congress, voicing concerns about potential misuse of the technology and asking for regulation. – Read More on Reuters
1. Forerunner Ventures is launching the Brand Power Score to help companies assess how impactful their brands is: This is partly to help start a conversation about new ways that founders and CEO can invest in their branding. – Read More on Fast Co.
2. How AI is creating a ‘Wild West’ scenario for entertainment giants like Spotify, Disney: Adding to the complexities is the question of whether AI-generated content can be protected and who gets compensated for it. – Read More on Yahoo
3. RELATED READ: What the Law Says About Copyright Ownership and AI-Generated Content. A couple key Qs come to mind: Should ChatGPT be allowed to use original content generated by third parties to generate responses, and are humans the only ones who can be credited as the authors of AI-generated content? – Read More on TFL
4. Will AI topple Michelin, the Oscars, Goop and Other Curation Brands? In a world of superabundance, consumers have long turned to recommendation brands that sift, sort, select and reject according to their own (often opaque) standards. – Read More on Bloomberg
5. Taco Bell wants to liberate “Taco Tuesday” from trademark restriction: Taco Bell announced on Tuesday that it is looking to get the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board to cancel the trademark registration that Wyoming-based Taco John’s has owned for the last 34 years. – Read More from Taco Bell
6. What can Web3 offer retail, luxury goods, and sports brands? Experiences can also be accurately tracked and monetized through higher sales engagement or monetizing the secondary market value of those experiences. – Read More on Fireblocks
1. WeWork Co-Founder Buys a Hip Clothing Brand and Starts a Senior Center: McKelvey paid $10 million last year for a controlling stake in American Giant, a made-in-the-USA apparel brand that became famous in 2012 for creating a sweatshirt called “the greatest hoodie ever made.” – Read More on Bloomberg
2. Patagonia, Levi’s and The North Face Again Top Kearney’s Circular Fashion Index: “While we see some shining stars, we see the industry as a whole needing a step change improvement.” – Read More on Yahoo
3. Why Some Investors Are Betting on China’s Recovery but Avoiding Chinese Shares: While Chinese spending is boosting luxury goods companies’ shares, Chinese authorities’ harsh regulatory crackdowns on the sector have damped the growth prospects of Chinese titians like Alibaba Group. – Read More on the WSJ
4. Yes, the Metaverse Is Still Happening: Large enterprises such as NVIDIA and Unity are investing heavily to lay the foundational infrastructure, while Roblox, Decentraland, and Sandbox are jockeying to be the preferred portal, and Web3 studios such as Touchcast and TerraZero are working with leading brands to expand their market share. – Read More on HBR
5. Amazon is focusing on using A.I. to get stuff delivered to you faster: Focusing on regionalization requires technology that is capable of analyzing data and patterns in order to predict what products will be in demand and where. That’s where AI comes in. – Read More on CNBC
6. Why Gen Z Is Ghosting the Fashion Industry for Cosmetics & Toys: In the past 12 months, apparel spending among U.S. consumers aged 18-to-24 has declined by 11 percent – faster than any other generation. – Read More on Forbes
1. How Russia’s Rich Get Their Luxuries Now: One Russian report estimated that such “parallel imports” of laptops, tablets and smartphones totaled $1.5 billion last year. At the same time, Chinese cars and electronics have flooded onto the Russian market. – Read More on the New York Times
2. Fast fashion groups fall out of fashion fast. Life cycles are even tighter in online-only fast fashion. That is because barriers to entry are so low. Businesses need no special intellectual property. Only modest physical infrastructure is required. Contractors make the clothes. – Read More on the FT
3. With $10 Dresses and No Online Selling, This Budget Retailer Is Taking on America: Primark is throwing down the gauntlet to Walmart, Target and others in low-price clothing. – Read More on the WSJ
4. Jane Street, Jump Pull Back Crypto Trading Over US Regulatory Uncertainty: Regulatory uncertainty has made it difficult for firms to operate business in a way that meets internal standards. – Read More on Bloomberg
5. The garment industry, excluded from downtown planning, finally gets to have its say: For the past decade, city planners and stakeholders in downtown Los Angeles have been crafting a plan that would set the area’s development priorities for the area for the next 20 years. – Read More on the LA Times
6. Gen-Z is redefining the luxury market: The challenge for brands is that Gen Z has increasingly divergent value systems from previous generations of consumers. To attract and keep them engaged, luxury brands are rapidly having to move beyond the traditional notions of luxury. – Read More on Fortune