Today’s digital marketplace has enabled the copycat market to thrive, which can damage livelihoods, profits and innovation.
Staying one step ahead of the copycats in the global battle against intellectual property (IP) theft can feel impossible. But in the face of relentless online attack, back-up has arrived. Dupe Killer, our patent-pending legal tech, is scouring the web, scanning social media and rooting out the lookalikes.
We’re standing up for creativity and using tech to help our clients fight back. Dupe Killer is finding thousands of copies for our clients each month – the equivalent of around a dozen per hour.
Imitation – not always the sincerest form of flattery
From fashion to phones, it takes inspiration, talent and often years of hard work to create a design icon. When it comes to great ideas, imitation is not always the sincerest form of flattery.
Dupe Killer is the first technology that uses AI to learn the shape or configuration of a product and seek out copies. It can detect specific features, like the sole of a shoe, the shape of a bottle or the lens on a camera. It’s finding the lookalikes rather than the fakes; if it looks like the real thing, Dupe Killer will find it.
According to the UK Design Council, the UK’s creative industries generate £8 million per hour for the UK economy. Design – and intellectual property – is at the heart of this. Protecting IP can help safeguard brands, designs and artwork from potential infringers.
Imitation – not always the sincerest form of flattery
From fashion to phones, it takes inspiration, talent and years of hard work to create a design icon. When it comes to great ideas, imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery.
Dupe Killer is the first technology that uses AI to learn the shape or configuration of a product and seek out copies. It can detect specific features, like the sole of a shoe, the shape of a bottle or the lens on a camera. It’s finding the lookalikes rather than the fakes; if it looks like the real thing, Dupe Killer will find it.
According to the UK Design Council, the UK’s creative industries generate £8 million per hour for the UK economy. Design – and intellectual property – is at the heart of this. Protecting your IP can help you safeguard brands, designs and artwork from potential infringers.
It’s the eye-catching part of a product that is often the downfall of the copycats
Deloitte Legal
‘Whack-a-mole’
Intellectual property is a valuable asset, so it’s vital that businesses protect what’s rightfully theirs. Established software and systems have been effective in dealing with counterfeiters but hunting down the lookalikes has been a far tougher challenge.
Consumer brands might find imitations by luck or at huge expense. And even when they do discover them, it can be hard to know how influential the retailer is and how much damage has been caused.
As well as weeding out internet of rip-offs, Dupe Killer provides clients with valuable data and analytics. It can tell them where copycats are based and the markets they sell to, and how many people have viewed their websites and the actual product page. It can even monitor interest in our clients’ designs, and how this changes over time.
“Training our software to know what that looks like and then find it online means in-house legal teams and product creators no longer need to play ‘whack-a-mole’ when searching for copies,” explains Deloitte Legal partner Rachael Barber.
Protecting brands
We’re working with some of the world’s leading brands. Much loved – and so, much copied – Jimmy Choo is among the global fashion and footwear brands using the software to give imitations the boot.
By searching for brands' iconic designs, Dupe Killer helps them uncover thousands of design infringements each month across web and social media platforms. As a result, brands can target enforcement activities in countries where the most copying happens.
Over the past few months, we’ve taken down a considerable number of copycats and are looking at recovering a six-figure sum for our clients.
Legal tech
Dupe Killer is just one example of how technology is reinventing the way legal work is being delivered, and was successfully transferred to Deloitte Legal following Deloitte’s transaction of Kemp Little in 2021.
The award-winning technology is helping us to future-proof our clients’ businesses in an increasingly connected, global marketplace. It’s giving companies greater certainty over their costs, allowing them to maximise value.
“For any consumer goods business, knowledge is power,” Rachael continued. “Through technology, brands can now make more informed, intelligence-led decisions.”