Intellectual property protection is leveraging the power of AI using search. MarqVision is a firm built around monitoring e-commerce and general content platforms policing IP rights, with particular attention to blockchain and NFTs. The Los Angeles-based startup has raised $20 million in Series A funding to further its goal of detecting counterfeits and having them removed from points of online distribution and sale. Originally incubated at Y Combinator, MarqVision has put together a client base that spans from luxury brands LVMH, Ralph Lauren and Baccarat to the more populist Pokémon.

MarqVision claims to safeguard assets on “the top 1,500 online marketplaces globally, as well as popular social media platforms that are becoming increasingly used for commerce, NFT platforms, gaming sites and other places where counterfeit products might appear,” reports TechCrunch, citing the firm’s claim that its technology is leading to “more than 20,000 enforcements weekly.”

The Seoul, South Korea-based MarqVision says it also has geography on its side, since “90 percent of counterfeit sales globally are traced back to Asia,” notes TechCrunch.

“MarqVision’s NFT protection pulls data from the biggest marketplaces and uses text analysis and AI image models” to detect infringement, explains SiliconAngle, pointing out that its dashboard allows clients “to see the flagged NFT listings and review them. From there they can decide if they need them removed.”

According to SiliconAngle, “MarqVision can also have a bot-powered reporting system auto-report fakes for removal when the confidence is extremely high.” MarqVision co-founder and chief executive Mark Lee says “this is a massive and complex problem, which is growing with tremendous speed.”

“The participation of global investors in this round shows confidence in MarqVision’s ability to build a single platform for IP and attests to the huge market opportunity in this space,” the company said in an announcement, alluding to the broader ramifications of what could potentially amount to broad, 24/7 online monitoring capabilities.

MarqVision says that it is about more than brand protection via an IP platform, allowing companies “to create, manage, protect and monetize IP rights — all in one place.” “Counterfeiting has become a massive problem, affecting all corners of the globe, and it is expected to grow another 50 percent this year to reach nearly $3 trillion in 2023,” according to MarqVision.