As the year draws to a close, a high-profile lawsuit between two Amazon influencers is making waves, raising critical questions about intellectual property and trade dress protections—with potentially far-reaching consequences for the industry.

The dispute centers on similar aesthetics—neutral tones, beige, cream, and consistent styling. Sydney Nicole Gifford alleges that Alyssa Sheil replicated her distinctive visual identity, including camera angles, color palettes, product arrangements, and overall presentation, resulting in lost followers, engagement, and sales.

Sheil’s defense argues that the “neutral aesthetic” is so common online that any similarities are coincidental. The burden of proof rests heavily on Gifford, who must demonstrate intentional copying to win—a significant challenge despite her substantial evidence (nearly 70 pages of side-by-side comparisons).

Why should you care?

The case is prompting a crucial examination of how the law protects an influencer’s unique visual style, including elements like color palettes, lighting, and overall presentation—known as trade dress.

Trade dress refers to a product or service’s overall look and feel. It’s a type of trademark protection that covers the visual elements of a brand, such as design, packaging, and presentation. Think of Tiffany & Co.’s iconic Robin’s egg blue boxes: the specific shade of blue, the distinct shape, and the overall presentation—all contribute to its instantly recognizable trade dress.

This area of law is still relatively new and unexplored within the influencer world, making this case especially significant. The outcome could reshape how influencers’ IP and trade dress are defined and protected, potentially increasing legal risks, reputational hazards, and financial exposure for influencers and the brands they collaborate with.

What will be the outcome?

The case is before the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, with a verdict likely in the next few months. The recent OMG Girlz v. MGA Entertainment case, which awarded significant damages for trade dress infringement, could serve as a precedent.

While predicting a verdict is impossible at this stage, the judge’s decision to allow the case to proceed indicates that Gifford’s claims are credible enough to warrant further investigation.

What happens if Gifford wins?

A Gifford victory would likely impact influencers and brands in several ways. Here’s what we might expect:

For influencers

Increased litigation 

A Gifford victory could significantly increase legal disputes within the influencer community. Influencers with distinct visual styles might face lawsuits from other creators alleging copyright or trade dress infringement.

This increase in litigation could create a climate of uncertainty and fear, forcing influencers to be more cautious about their creative output and potentially leading to a chilling effect on creative expression and innovation. Legal costs associated with defending against such lawsuits would also place a substantial financial burden on many creators.

Expanded scope of legal protection 

While a Gifford victory might provide broader legal protection for unique visual aesthetics, the practical implications remain uncertain. Influencers could gain more control over their brand identity and enjoy greater bargaining power when negotiating with brands. However, the precise scope of this protection and the legal processes involved in enforcing it remain unclear.

It’s also possible that this increased protection might only benefit high-profile influencers with significant resources to pursue legal action, potentially exacerbating existing inequalities within the creator economy.

Shifting strategies

The heightened risk of infringement could push influencers to prioritize creating more original and legally defensible content. This might lead to a more diverse and less homogenous influencer market, with creators seeking to establish unique styles that are less easily replicated. However, this shift would also likely increase the pressure and financial burden on creators.

Developing truly original content requires more time, resources, and creative effort, potentially reducing the profitability of some influencer marketing campaigns and making it harder for smaller creators to compete.

For brands

Increased legal costs & complexity

A Gifford victory could lead to substantially higher legal costs for brands. More rigorous vetting processes for influencers might become necessary, potentially including background checks and portfolio reviews for potential IP infringement.

Contract negotiations would likely become far more complex, with clauses addressing usage rights, liability for aesthetic similarities, and potentially even indemnification against future claims becoming more common. Brands should also prepare for the increased possibility of protracted legal battles and associated costs. The additional time and resources required for this increased due diligence could slow down campaign development timelines, potentially adding to overall budget increases.

Redefined collaboration parameters

Brands may adopt a much more cautious approach to influencer collaborations. Expect to see a potential shift toward more restrictive contracts, possibly limiting the creative freedom of influencers while increasing the control exerted by brands to minimize legal risks.

This might involve more clearly defined creative briefs, stricter guidelines for content creation, and potentially more oversight of the influencer's output. The added layers of scrutiny and control could slow down the campaign development process and might affect the overall tone and style of campaigns.

Proactive IP management

Proactive intellectual property management would likely become more critical for brands. This may mean: (1) conducting thorough legal reviews of influencer portfolios before initiating any collaboration, (2) developing exceptionally detailed creative briefs that clearly define usage rights and minimize the risk of aesthetic overlap or infringement, (3) potentially investing in trademark protection for unique brand aesthetics, and (4) establishing robust internal processes for identifying and mitigating potential IP risks throughout the campaign lifecycle.

These changes could necessitate investment in both human resources and technology, potentially including legal counsel and IP management software, to ensure compliance and avoid legal issues.

The takeaway

The Gifford v. Sheil case highlights the evolving legal terrain of influencers and brands. If Gifford gets the verdict she’s hoping for, it’s likely to significantly impact how brands and creators approach intellectual property, contracts, and due diligence in the years ahead.

While this may introduce more legal complexities, it also offers an opportunity to establish clearer guidelines for protecting creative assets and ensuring more transparent, legally sound influencer collaborations.

Stay tuned for updates as the case progresses. In the meantime, here are some excellent articles to explore the lawsuit in more depth:

• The Verge: Bad influence

• Bloomberg Law: Influencer should face creator's vibe-copying suit

• Creator Economy Law: Can creators really own a vibe?

Find influencers and automate your outreach

Tired of endlessly scrolling social media to find the right influencers? Sick of copying and pasting contact information between platforms? Wish you could personalize outreach messages to multiple influencers at once?

The Superstar Chrome extension helps you discover, analyze, and connect with influencers across all major social media platforms — saving you hours of work and supporting your vetting process.

Unlock powerful data insights: Go beyond basic follower counts. Get instant access to key metrics and deeper insights on audience demographics, content performance, and growth trends—all within your browser.

Discover influencers across platforms: No need to jump between Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Find the perfect creators, no matter where they're active, with our cross-platform discovery tool.

Streamline your outreach: Say goodbye to tedious copy-and-paste. Superstar's extension lets you send personalized messages to influencers directly, right from their social media profiles.

Seamless Superstar integration: Build custom lists and launch campaigns instantly. Add your favorite creators to Superstar and manage all your collaborations from our powerful platform. We're excited to help you take your influencer campaigns to the next level and we look forward to working with the community to make Superstar even better.

Here’s how you can get started with Superstar

Download the Chrome Extension: Instantly unlock influencer insights, streamline your outreach, and discover the perfect creators for your brand.

Explore the platform: Sign up for a free trial and get started with managing your creators.

Get our special offer: Join our exclusive community

For a limited time, Product Hunt + Creator Marketing Community members will get a 15% discount on our paid plan. All you need to do is be accepted to the LinkedIn community, leave a comment on PH, and schedule a call with one of the founders.

Schedule a demo: Click here

Industry insights

TikTok ‘ban’ upheld by appeals court

Last week, the US Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which requires ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok US. What are the broader implications, and what’s next for TikTok? Read more here

Where each of the big social platforms stand on external links

There’s been a lot of discussion of late over link penalties and which social platforms penalize links in posts to keep users from tapping away to other apps. So, where do each of the big social apps stand on links and link penalties? Read more here

DTC company Shapermint’s AI influencer engine highlights how marketers are actually using the tech

The AI marketing revolution is underway, and CMOs are more focused on scale and efficiency than creating animated footage. DTC brand Shapermint is leveraging generative AI to streamline its influencer marketing efforts. Their in-house AI agent, “Altair,” creates scripts and storyboards for TikTok and Instagram Reels, enabling efficient content production at scale. Read more here

Bluesky and Threads find opportunity as users and advertisers flee X

As Elon Musk’s ownership of X (formerly Twitter) passes the two-year mark, the platform’s shift to more bots and polarizing content has driven users to explore alternatives. Platforms like Bluesky and Threads are stepping up, topping Apple App Store charts. Threads is even gearing up to launch ads in January. Read more here

Join an exclusive community of leading influencer marketers

Our newsletter keeps you informed, and our community keeps you connected. I highly encourage you to join our professional network on LinkedIn.

Join the Creator Marketing Community 

Connect with influencer marketing leaders and professionals from top brands like Nike, Kate Spade, Klarna, Niantic, Red Bull, and Calvin Klein to network and get insider access to exciting deals, events, and job opportunities.

Interesting reads

Influencer houses are dead. Welcome to the production studio era [LINK]

Brands are finding engaged, niche audiences on Substack [LINK]

Creator agencies have embraced AI, but is the tech changing marketers’ minds? [LINK]

The 25 best streamers right now, ranked [LINK]

Free Creator Economy Resource List

Looking for the latest news and insights on the creator economy? We’ve curated a selection of top industry resources — all continuously updated— to help marketers navigate the creator economy more effectively. Don’t miss our global marketing events calendar! Check it out here 👇