What is an AI (Artificial Intelligence)
An Artificial Intelligence is a branch of computer science which aims at creating intelligent machines which can work and learn like human.
Machines with artificial intelligence are designed to carry out activities such as:
- Learning.
- Problem-solving
- Speech recognition
- Planning
- Perception
- Ability to manipulate and to move an object
Three major revolutions, another is about to come.
The 1st revolution (offline retailing).
In the 19th century when the basis of the trademark law was first laid down, one would enter a shop and the shopkeeper makes the product suggestion. The product purchase was made based on the recommendations made by the shopkeeper.
When the self-service grocery store such as Walmart was introduced, the way products were purchased changed. It removed the shop-assistants which increased the chances of a consumer being confused between Trademarks.
The 2nd revolution (Online retailing).
With the development of world wide web came the concept of online retailing. With online retailing came new challenges to the trademark law. Google and other search platforms changed the advertisement method which was based on the keywords, and the trademark law has to deal with the domain name, meta data, keywords, etc.
The 3rd revolution (Social media revolution)
Social Media is comparably a new phenomenon and has a very big impact on how product suggestions/purchases are made. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other platforms have all raised new issues for the trademark law.
The 4th and the upcoming revolution (Artificial Intelligence)
The fourth revolution is on the horizon or maybe it is already here, i.e. Artificial Intelligence. AI is everywhere, whether you know about it or not but one encounters an AI multiple times. You have might have noticed the suggestion of products made online by the AI bots based on your past purchases. This replaced human assistants by an AI bot.
AI in Retail.
There are many examples of AI which are already operating in the retail environment. Amazon Echo and Google home devices are the best real-life example of AI working in the retail environment.
Amazon echo runs on voice recognition software called Alexa which is an AI. When a product purchase is made using Amazon echo, the product suggestion is made based on the past purchases done by the user. This removes the crucial selection process with the help of an AI. One can easily make purchases with the help of Amazon echo.
It is evident that in time products such as Amazon Echo will make purchases automatically. This model is called “Shipping then shopping.” For this model to work the seller has to keep an easy and open return policy as many users might not be satisfied by the product which will be automatically shipped by the AI.
Another example of AI which is power by Amazon is the Amazon Dash. This service is intended for the replenishment of consumable products such as groceries or for goods such as ink cartridges. Dash will automatically order the consumable item before you run out of it.
How AI will protect the Brand?
As we can see the use of AI in the retail sector, the AI contains the information of billions of products which includes manufacturing date, place of production, infringement, certification, etc. This will help in keeping fake or duplicate products out of the market as AI will avoid buying any infringed product. This will help in Brand protection.
Australia based Trademark vision developed a deep learning-based visual search platform which helps in brand protection by searching for similar Trademarks from around the world. You just have to upload the image and the AI will compare it against other trademarked logos which makes it easier to Identify IP infringements. This could easily replace the manual and the text-based process for Trademark Registration which consumes a lot of time and money.
Conclusion
AI with no doubt will revolutionize the world’s way of working. It will save time and will increase the accuracy of the work done and efficiency, but can AI replace human as a whole? Can AI make decisions like we humans do or will it just make decision based on goals set by us human? Can AI make different decision based on different situation or will it make decision just to serve the purpose without considering the situation of others? Well we will find it out soon.
