Hogan Lovells Brands Seminar 2025: AI, autonomy and the ‘death’ of the trade mark

Guest speaker, Professor Dev Saif Gangjee (University of Oxford), discussed the future of “agentic AI”, where algorithms, not humans, will make purchasing decisions on behalf of consumers. He commented that trade marks have traditionally functioned as heuristic shortcuts for consumers, and asked what happens when AI can access all the product data directly. If machines don’t need brand cues, does the trade mark lose relevance? Drawing on marketing theory, psychology, and recent case law, Professor Gangjee suggested we may be moving towards a hybrid AI-human consumer, and that while “we’re not at the death of the trade mark,” he said, “something interesting is going on.”

Prior to Professor Gangjee’s exploration of the role of the trade mark in an agentic AI world, the Hogan Lovells IP team, Sahira Khwaja, Alastair Shaw, Emily Sharkey, Grace Gladdle, Laura Alvarez Otero, and Andrea Constantine, primed the audience on relevant principles arising from UK case law in Swatch v Samsung, Thom Browne v adidas, and Iconix v Dream Pairs, in particular raising questions about post-sale confusion, AI-driven recommendations, and the future of consumer perception.

Key themes from the Seminar included:

• How brand value could be undermined when AI optimises for cost and convenience.
• How proprietary algorithms are reshaping the way brands are surfaced and selected.
• Consumer resistance to fully autonomous shopping systems, and why brand trust still matters.
• The legal system’s current limits in addressing backend AI decision-making in an infringement context.

The Seminar concluded with a lively Q&A, with discussion turning to copyright, service marks, and what brand protection looks like in an AI-mediated world.

Authored by Liam Pape and Benjamin Goh.