Granted Patent B2

US 12,632,517 · App. 19/349,714 · Granted May 19, 2026

Inventors: Christopher Horton (Charleston, SC); Jeremy Uzan (Charleston, SC)

Assignee: Music IP Holdings, Inc.

G06F21/106G06F16/632G06F21/1084G06F40/205G06F2221/2137

Abstract

Claims (32)

1 . A method for generating merchandisable derivative works from designated source content, the method comprising:

receiving a request to generate a merchandisable derivative work from designated source content having transformation constraints established by a content authority, the transformation constraints defining permissible and prohibited transformations applicable to the designated source content for merchandise derivation, wherein the merchandisable derivative work is for application to at least one of a physical item or a virtual merchandise item;

evaluating the request against one or more of the transformation constraints established by the content authority;

upon determining the request satisfies one or more of the transformation constraints, generating the merchandisable derivative work comprising a merchandise design by applying a generative model to the designated source content, wherein generating the merchandisable derivative work comprises transforming a three-dimensional model or texture while preserving brand-identifying features specified in brand guidelines;

evaluating the generated merchandisable derivative work against compliance criteria established by the content authority, the compliance criteria including brand guidelines defining permissible and impermissible visual characteristics for merchandisable derivative works, wherein evaluating the generated merchandisable derivative work against the compliance criteria comprises comparing the generated merchandisable derivative work to the brand guidelines to detect non-compliant visual elements; and

upon determining compliance with the compliance criteria, triggering commercial distribution of the generated merchandisable derivative work through one or more of a digital merchandise platform, a physical manufacturing system, or a cross-platform digital asset registry.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the merchandisable derivative work is configured for application to a virtual merchandise item selected from the group consisting of avatar skins, digital clothing, accessories, in-game items, or augmented reality assets.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the transformation constraints comprise predefined permissible modifications including at least one of: color variations, pattern applications, dimensional scaling, or text insertions.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein modifications exceeding the predefined permissible modifications trigger a manual review prior to merchandisable derivative work generation.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein triggering commercial distribution comprises embedding at least one of a digital watermark or metadata in the merchandisable derivative work to enable tracking across at least one of a digital platform or metaverse environment.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein triggering commercial distribution comprises transmitting the merchandisable derivative work to a print-on-demand system for physical item production.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein triggering commercial distribution comprises transmitting the merchandisable derivative work to a digital storefront for availability as a virtual merchandise item.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the merchandisable derivative work and triggering the commercial distribution of the merchandisable derivative work are executed through multi-agent orchestration comprising:

a knowledge agent to maintain transformation constraints and brand guidelines, and validate designs;

an action agent to apply a generative artificial intelligence model to generate the merchandisable derivative work; and

a distribution agent to manage physical production and virtual merchandise deployment.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the transformation constraints comprise a hierarchical rule system including a plurality of rule levels, each rule level of the plurality of rule levels including at least one of global rules, tour-specific rules, venue-specific rules, time-based rules, or fan-tier rules, and each rule level inheriting constraints from higher rule levels.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein evaluating the request against the transformation constraints further comprises filtering the request against prohibited content categories established by the content authority.

11 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising processing a plurality of merchandise creation requests autonomously based on the transformation constraints established by the content authority.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein evaluating the generated merchandisable derivative work against the compliance criteria comprises applying a machine learning model trained to detect non-compliant elements relative to the brand guidelines.

13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the transformation constraints are generated by a machine learning system trained on historical approval and rejection decisions.

14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the designated source content comprises content that has been registered in a controlled content library with associated transformation permissions.

15 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the generative model comprises at least one of a diffusion model, a generative adversarial network, or a transformer-based model trained on merchandise design patterns.

16 . The method of claim 1 , wherein triggering commercial distribution comprises automatically routing the merchandisable derivative work to distribution channels selected based on a format and characteristics of the merchandisable derivative work.

17 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the request is generated automatically in response to a trigger event detected during a live performance, the trigger event comprising at least one of: initiation of a particular song, detection of a crowd energy threshold, or occurrence of a stage visual effect.

18 . A method for generating merchandisable derivative works during a performance, the method comprising:

receiving event data streams comprising at least one of: current song lyrics, stage visuals, lighting parameters, crowd engagement metrics, or venue location data;

identifying a trigger event within the event data streams;

generating, responsive to the trigger event, a merchandisable derivative work comprising a merchandise design by applying a generative model to designated source content using parameters derived from the event data streams, wherein generating the merchandisable derivative work comprises transforming a three-dimensional model or texture while preserving brand-identifying features specified in brand guidelines;

evaluating the merchandisable derivative work against compliance criteria established by a content authority, the compliance criteria including brand guidelines defining permissible and impermissible visual characteristics for merchandisable derivative works, wherein evaluating the merchandisable derivative work against the compliance criteria comprises comparing the merchandisable derivative work to the brand guidelines to detect noncompliant visual elements; and

upon determining compliance with the compliance criteria, triggering commercial distribution of the merchandisable derivative work with availability restricted by at least one of a temporal availability window or a geographic region.

19 . The method of claim 18 , further comprising providing an interactive interface enabling customization of the merchandisable derivative work during the performance.

Continuity (5)

References Cited (137)