Artificial intelligence (AI) is experiencing a period of unparalleled growth, driven by improvements in software, computing power, and big data. AI technologies are now poised to radically transform industries such as health care, finance, transportation, art, music, and many others with dramatic economic and social impacts already being felt. Beyond this, AI is transforming the human creative process itself and in doing so raises fundamental challenges to certain well-established tenets of intellectual property (IP) law.
Any company, big or small, developing or using AI is a key part of this transformation. The impact of AI that is developing will be felt across all industries horizontally, whether or not they are actively engaging with this technology at the moment.
The intersection between IP and AI
IP is an important source of business value for many companies. As such, it is critical for companies both creating and using AI to have a thorough understanding of how these technologies intersect with IP. Businesses should be asking themselves questions such as:
How can IP protect AI software?
Should IP strategies focus on software, hardware or even data?
Is it possible to use third-party IP to train AI without permission?
Is it an infringement for AI to collect and use third-party IP?
Should, and if so, how can AI be licensed?
Can AI outputs receive IP protection?
Can companies circumvent certain IP laws via contracts?
This guide will attempt to answer these questions, with the strong caveat that this current phase of AI technology is evolving rapidly, as are the laws, regulations and litigation emerging in response to it.
AI raises other issues that go beyond IP, including personal data protection, cybersecurity, biased data, technological unemployment and disinformation are not the focus of this guide, though they may intersect with IP concerns at times.
It should also be noted that this guide is not intended to provide legal advice, much of which is jurisdiction dependent, but to help business stakeholders gain a broad understanding of the current state of AI and the potential implications for their IP strategies.
Overview of this guide
What is AI? introduces the main technologies and concepts that are captured under the umbrella term “AI”, specifically: machine learning, neural networks, generative AI, and large language models. It is not necessary to dissect the technology behind AI in full but a basic understanding of these terms and systems is useful for grasping the IP implications.
The AI and IP landscape provides an overview of the major IP tensions driven by AI and the main developments in jurisdictions where we are seeing legislative reforms, consultations, and litigation. Certain jurisdictions are particularly active often driven by the fact that major AI companies are headquartered in these places.
Developing and protecting AI systems is addressed to businesses that are developing AI models or products, focusing on patents, copyright, and trade secrets. The goal is to help businesses understand their options for protecting their AI innovations under existing IP frameworks and their rights and responsibilities regarding data protection and copyright.
Creating and inventing with AI provides insights for businesses that are using AI tools to invent and create, with a focus on patents and copyrights. We will also discuss what to look for in the terms of service of an AI product regarding IP, and how to protect business IP when using AI tools.
The future of IP and AI acknowledges that the continued rapid advancement of AI technologies, and the increasingly widespread availability of AI tools, leaves us with many outstanding questions. We conclude by addressing some of these, and highlighting both the challenges and opportunities they pose for businesses, IP rights holders, AI developers and providers, trade bodies, governments, universities, licensing organizations and the public.