Crypto Copycat: A Fashion Centric Blockchain Framework For Eliminating Fashion Infringement

Abstract

The fashion industry represents a significant portion of<br> the global gross domestic product, however, it is plagued by cheap<br> imitators that infringe on the trademarks which destroys the fashion<br> industry's hard work and investment. While eventually the copycats<br> would be found and stopped, the damage has already been done, sales<br> are missed and direct and indirect jobs are lost. The infringer thrives<br> on two main facts: the time it takes to discover them and the lack of<br> tracking technologies that can help the consumer distinguish them.<br> Blockchain technology is a new emerging technology that provides a<br> distributed encrypted immutable and fault resistant ledger. Blockchain<br> presents a ripe technology to resolve the infringement epidemic<br> facing the fashion industry. The significance of the study is that a<br> new approach leveraging the state of the art blockchain technology<br> coupled with artificial intelligence is used to create a framework<br> addressing the fashion infringement problem. It transforms the current<br> focus on legal enforcement, which is difficult at best, to consumer<br> awareness that is far more effective. The framework, Crypto CopyCat,<br> creates an immutable digital asset representing the actual product<br> to empower the customer with a near real time query system. This<br> combination emphasizes the consumer's awareness and appreciation<br> of the product's authenticity, while provides real time feedback to<br> the producer regarding the fake replicas. The main findings of this<br> study are that implementing this approach can delay the fake product<br> penetration of the original product market, thus allowing the original<br> product the time to take advantage of the market. The shift in the<br> fake adoption results in reduced returns, which impedes the copycat<br> market and moves the emphasis to the original product innovation.