Chapter 4: Fashioning Ownership: Intellectual Property Considerations in Generative AI-Driven Fashion Design

In recent years, new technologies have created profound transformation in the fashion industry. The integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has played a substantial role in this evolution, allowing for significant expansion of the routes through which designers create, share, and commercialize their work across digital and physical realms.

This research explores the integration of GenAI into the digitized fashion design, its development process, and the subsequent implications for intellectual property (IP) management. Employing a cross-sectional approach, the research conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with designers currently utilizing digital design software, alongside founders of early-stage design software who incorporate Artificial Intelligence (AI) functionalities. This dual perspective offers a comprehensive insight into the strategies, terminology, and practices that influence a designer’s IP management.

The findings reveal numerous AI integrations into the fashion design and development process which have not yet been extensively explored in academic or industry discourse. The recommendations developed in this research demonstrate the necessity for a cohesive and well-defined understanding of IP at each stage when developing and using design software.

This research elucidates the complexities inherent in simultaneously possessing the technical proficiency in fashion design software, and the successive repercussions of pivotal design choices on IP ownership, especially within the context of AI integration. It seeks to offer designers pragmatic solutions in their work, demonstrating to them the areas that warrant the most attention when integrating AI into their workflows, allowing them to safeguard their desired level of ownership over the final design, and enhance their ability to manage their IP efficiently.