Source: The Global Legal Post

From a roundtable held at London’s RSA Club on 03 June 2026, legal practitioners discussed how increasing use of AI across design, supply-chain modelling and customer-facing functions such as virtual try-ons is producing a range of intellectual property and related legal questions for fashion brands. Panellists included Julia Holden (Trevisan & Cuonzo), Megan Bannigan (partner, Debevoise & Plimpton) and Matt Hervey (senior associate general counsel – AI strategy, Cloudflare), who outlined jurisdictional differences and concrete case law examples that illustrate current uncertainties. Bannigan noted that US positions and court rulings have indicated machine-created works lack copyright protection, while human-created elements retain it; she cited a US comic-book case where underlying AI images were unprotectable but the page composition received copyright protection. Hervey contrasted approaches in Europe and China, focusing on user control over expressive content, and highlighted a UK nuance requiring human intellect for originality under domestic law, with the UK copyright office acknowledging ambiguity.

Panel discussions also addressed liability questions tied to models trained on copyrighted material and whether outputs necessarily infringe; Hervey said training on copyrighted works does not automatically render every output infringing, and brands may seek indemnities from AI suppliers. The speakers recommended that companies implement acceptable-use policies, require staff responsibility for chosen outputs, and perform reverse searches to screen for obvious infringements. Bannigan expressed scepticism about copyright opt-outs being sufficient and anticipated a move toward clearer opt-in/opt-out licensing structures, while Hervey called for scarcity and streamlined licensing processes to prompt AI firms to enter deals. The roundtable flagged additional issues such as the use of generative AI to replicate models, raising potential EU privacy and biometric concerns, and warned that discovery in litigation—proving whether and how AI was used—will be complex and burdensome. The session coincided with the launch of the Global Legal Post Law Over Borders Fashion Guide, described as a practical resource for in-house counsel and advisers in the fashion sector.