The past ten years brought with them a seemingly never-ending array of data intensive and increasingly “intelligent” technologies. While data security and privacy remain paramount, an increasingly data-intensive technological, economic, and social landscape will mean that the ownership and control of data will become increasingly important and likely oft-contested. It is here that the worlds of data privacy, security, and protection collide with the world of intellectual property. This is a trend we can expect to grow in the decade ahead, as data intensive technologies like artificial intelligence (“AI”), blockchain, and the Internet of Things (“IoT”) and the Cloud continue to break new ground, altering the legal and security landscape in the process.
Over the past decade, AI-related patent applications have grown remarkably as companies and inventors look to protect their rights and stake a claim of exclusivity in this rapidly growing and cross-cutting technological space. AI and IP rights have the potential to raise issues for IP-seekers, IP-holders, and governments in the years ahead. Various forms of IP can apply with respect to the technologies themselves, whether they are in the contexts of machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, etc. Executives and security professionals alike will need to contend with these overlapping rights to develop an effective IP strategy for AI technologies: patents are a tool for protecting the functions of the technologies, copyright may pertain to the source code, and database ownership right—and the legal tools for protecting and enabling access, privacy, security, and control. There are also fundamental questions up for debate—and clarification— through contract law or legislation—about how IP that is created by technologies themselves will be treated.
blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies also saw increased attention and promotion during the past decade. Heralded as a means of providing greater certainty and protection to intangible assets and financial instruments (amongst other information). These technologies also have the potential benefit of being used to maintain and assert IP rights by tracking usage and curtailing infringement in digital contexts. For example, blockchain and distributed ledger technologies can be used in the context of verifying usage of copyright-protected works and ensuring creators and rights-holders are compensated accordingly. Blockchain start-ups have started employing their technologies to ensure the rights-holders of musical works are compensated fairly. Possible applications of this technology to ensure privacy and security of sensitive information, such as in the HealthTech and broader health care landscape, abound.
