The buzz about artificial intelligence (AI) is hard to escape these days. From news headlines to social media feeds, AI has seemingly taken center stage. Not surprisingly, much of the attention has been directed toward the intersection of AI and intellectual property, especially implications for IP infringement. At the same time, the legal system is no stranger to this increased focus on AI. Courts worldwide find themselves entangled in complex cases involving AI-generated content that test the boundaries of existing law and precedent. Longstanding legal frameworks and regulations are being revisited while new, forward-thinking and adaptive policies are considered.
It’s a big topic, especially for IP owners trying to safeguard their rights, creators attempting to navigate the shifting landscape, or for those in legal profession—like Ludwig APC—trying to help clients protect IP assets, assert rights, and defend against infringement claims.
Challenges Abound, But So Too Does Potential Good
As technology advances, it’s a given that the ability to use AI to generate, replicate, and disseminate creative works will raise challenges. If something is AI-generated, what entity is responsible for its creation? Who owns the IP? If it’s a derivative work, how is any original content protected?
For all that—and more—AI tends to get a bad rap in IP circles. But it’s not all bad. AI has the potential to bring numerous positive developments to the IP space. Here are a few to consider:
- Existing Patents and Prior Art Searches: Inventors and researchers can get a significant AI boost in efficiency when searching for existing patents and analyzing prior art. This can save them time and help unearth possible conflicts, perhaps even avoiding infringement issues down the road.
- Automated Drafting and Review: Sophisticated AI tools can act as high-tech sidekicks making sure patent paperwork is top-notch. An AI assist drafting and reviewing patent applications can improve the quality and completeness of submissions. All that attention to detail also might result in better protection for IP and an even better shot getting patents approved.
- Enhanced Trademark Monitoring: AI can be used to automate the monitoring of trademarks globally, providing IP owners with real-time alerts when a possible infringement occurs. This kind of proactive, real-time, worldwide approach would be virtually unthinkable without AI.
- Copyright Protection & Content Recognition: Similar to monitoring for unauthorized trademark usage, AI technologies can protect content creators by identifying and preventing copyright infringement. Like having a trusty digital watchdog, automated content recognition systems can sort digital content worldwide, spotting any signs of copyright violations.
- Predictive Analytics for IP Strategy: At its core, AI is a data analyzer supreme, able to sort and analyze vast amounts of data in an instant. That makes AI a great tool for providing predictive analytics for IP strategies. AI can help foresee the chances of getting patents approved while also identifying trouble spots, help recognize market trends, and even surface potential legal issues.
- Blockchain Integration for Security: Combine AI’s sophisticated analytics and processing speed with blockchain’s decentralized and tamper-proof technology, and it’s easy to see how the two together can create robust systems for IP protection and tracking. For example, blockchain could be used to create tokens representing digital IP assets, while AI algorithms are used to optimize the management and exchange of those tokens.
While challenges, uncertainties, and even ethical considerations exist, the positive applications for AI in IP management can surely contribute to a more efficient, secure, and innovative environment for all involved. At Ludwig APC, our keen understanding of both legal intricacies and technological advancements like AI, makes us well-equipped to ensure that the future of AI and IP is a bit more navigable for creators, inventors, and businesses alike.
Let’s Work Together: Global Experience, Personal Focus
If you have questions about how AI tools and products could affect your IP rights and business, contact us today to arrange a free consultation. Ludwig APC can be your guide as you integrate AI technologies while also protecting the IP you’ve worked so hard to build.
(619) 929-0873 | consultation@ludwigiplaw.com.
Recent news speaks of next-generation CPUs that make computation much more energy efficient and compact, as well as much faster. These innovations are seemingly paving the way for servers, computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones of the future to run very taxing artificial intelligence processes with relative ease.
At the same time, major manufacturers such as Nvidia and FOXcon have announced initiatives to create “AI factories.” These data centers will power the training models used in AI applications for robotics or self-driving cars. As a result, AI models will be trained much more quickly and with many more simulations and permutations, leading to significant advancements and improvements.
How the arrival of even faster, more efficient (and thus more powerful) AI will affect intellectual property creators and rights owners will, no doubt, be complicated and nuanced.
It could be a double-edged sword:
- On one hand, the accelerated pace of AI-driven innovation could lead to a surge in novel creations, thus expanding the scope of IP. Rapid advancements in AI might also result in quicker and more streamlined development processes.
- On the other, the speed and efficiency of AI could strain existing systems of copyright, ownership, enforcement, and what constitutes infringement. Policymakers and legal experts will need to adapt swiftly to ensure that IP laws are both robust and agile enough to keep pace with the effects of faster and more efficient AI.
Surely, certain aspects of faster, more efficient AI will do major good for the world, such as in the fields of medicine and science. At the same time, some aspects will be of great interest to individuals and businesses at work in the IP, technology, and cybersecurity space.
While not an exhaustive list, below are a few near-future, crystal ball impacts we might expect.
Major Disruptor
With more powerful AI, there’s the distinct possibility of major economic disruption due to AI replacing people and their jobs with more efficient processes. The impact of increased productivity, more efficient use of resources, and new technology will be felt globally.
To illustrate how a simple increase in technology could make such an impact, let’s imagine an autonomous food truck serving food via AI “personality robots.” Sound outlandish? The technology for this type of food truck already exists, but the cost of renting the server space and bandwidth necessary to keep the truck connected to the home office’s computing power is prohibitive.
Now imagine a fancy, high-speed, “near future internet” where our food truck operates through an offline chipset the size of a shoebox that’s stored onboard and uses less power than an iPhone. Suddenly, the concept becomes feasible.
Now imagine this happening with every business all over the planet in a relatively short time . . .
Robocall AI
Most of us know about those persistent phishing attempts conducted via phone or email. At present, they seem to be more irritating than they are threatening. But that could change as enhanced AI promises to make future phishing attempts far more convincing.
Robocall AI will research targets in depth, use the voices of family or friends, and even index intimate details of the person being called and known associates. Consider what happens once an average cell phone or tablet can do this.
According to a report by digital security company McAfee, 52% of Americans share their voices online in some manner. Apply the math to the USA’s 331.9 million residents and that’s around 172.6 million voices at the near-instant disposal of an AI trained on that dataset—all of which will become a major focus for both privacy and cybersecurity experts (if it it’s not already).
AI For President
We already see politicians using multi-lingual AI to make robocalls to constituents. Often these calls are made without the disclosure that they are AI-generated.
- What is the threshold for disclosure for deep-faked figures/video used in such robocalls? What about altered language, sounds of voices, or content?
- What potential is there for infringement and/or fraud, especially if the likeness or the voice of a famous person is used?
- Will a backpack-sized AI on the site of filming a campaign speech be able to track everyone dialing into the live feed, research their IP addresses, and edit and reproduce altered images, words, and language, in real time?
- Could your identity or IP be used in the creation of such content without your consent?
All the above and more is possible. That’s why individuals and businesses operating in the IP space more than ever should seek expert guidance and cutting-edge insight on AI’s current impacts on them and what might be coming next.
Let’s Work Together: Global Experience, Personal Focus
As experts in copyright matters, IP, and business litigation, artificial intelligence is a topic Ludwig APC is monitoring closely. Our goal is to keep clients advised on its impact on IP and business best practices.
If you have questions about how AI tools and products could affect your IP rights and business, contact us today to arrange a free consultation. Ludwig APC can be your guide as you integrate AI technologies while also protecting the IP you’ve worked so hard to build.
(619) 929-0873 | consultation@ludwigiplaw.com.
There’s a groundswell of lawsuits being brought against artificial intelligence companies, accusing platforms such as Meta, OpenAI, and others of using copyright protected works without permission to train their generative AI systems. This “Great Infringement”—currently alleged to involve hundreds of thousands of novels—illustrates the magnitude of this admitted practice by various AI vendors. Apparently, it’s been going on for a while.
Not surprisingly, as monetization of AI and its underlying technology gains ground, the courts are becoming the front line for deciding the legality of the way large language models are trained and the information they are able to access. At the same time, attorneys are left to explain the risks and benefits to their clients who are using these AI models themselves or whose works are being impacted by them.
Mainstream Movement
The lawsuits against AI companies do not represent a fringe movement. It’s quite the contrary. For example, prominent creative figures and artists are among the 8,500 cosigners from The Authors Guild who sent an open letter urging “generative AI companies to cease using their works without proper authorization or compensation.” Similarly, others have barraged AI vendors Stability AI, Midjourney, Microsoft, and others with lawsuits alleging infringement and misuse.
Creators’ Funds
In response, several of the accused companies have pledged to set up “creators’ funds” to compensate those whose works were used to train their AI models. Just how those funds get financed and money distributed equitably has not been decided.
Questions surrounding what constitutes fair use of copyrighted materials, identifying which works may have been used and to what extent, and other issues such as retroactive compensation need to be settled—and that’s not likely to happen any time soon.
Uncharted Territory
As discussed in previous Ludwig APC blogs, AI and its impact on intellectual property is new territory for us all. Just how these pending cases (and those that follow) are decided will set precedent for the United States and the world.
Will new decisions be adjudicated according to old paradigms? After all, IP existed long before AI, and IP has traditionally been well protected from infringement—whether misuse was intended or not. Will those old foundations hold true, or does AI require us to rethink how we move forward?
At the heart of the current situation is the “open source” nature of AI. In its infancy, generative AI began in places like closed Department of Defense labs whose developers had no intention of creating pictures or music. From such humble beginnings, generative AI grew to include open-source research projects designed to create one AI model that could do it all. The need to track whose works were used to train the AI models and compensating them accordingly likely never entered into the equation—or was an afterthought at best.
Now as platforms that were once open source, like Open AI, become privately held companies, questions of IP infringement and remuneration arise. It’s hard not to wonder if where we’ve ended up was the intention all along, with massive research grants building entities that are now proprietary. It’s also hard to imagine that copyrighted material wasn’t used along the way.
Protecting IP
That said, IP owners are right to want compensation for the use of their works by those who have (or stand to) profit from it. What’s becoming increasingly clear, in these times of the “Great Infringement” is that it’s more important than ever before to protect your IP.
That’s where experienced firms like Ludwig APC can be of great value. As experts in copyright matters, IP, and business litigation, we are monitoring these lawsuits and other AI-related developments very closely. Clearly, generative AI is an amazing technology with much promise. At the same time, IP owners need to protect what they’ve worked so hard to create.
Let’s Work Together: Global Experience, Personal Focus
If you have questions about how AI tools and products could affect your business and/or your IP, or whether you should be using them at all, contact us today to arrange a free consultation: (619) 929-0873 | consultation@ludwigiplaw.com.
A surprising number of artificial intelligence (“AI”) competitions are popping up around the globe. Here in the United States, both the Biden Administration and The Pentagon have announced high stakes contests. Corporations like IBM are also throwing their hats into the ring.
The offer of such prizes is sure to stimulate AI research and advancement. It’s like a new, virtual “World’s Fair” climate for technology—an exciting time for individuals, businesses, and even government entities to strike out and explore what they can do with AI.
With various AI tools easily acquired, entrants into these contests are expected to be varied and many. Just as cell phones made every person an aspiring high-end photographer, so too does the ubiquitous nature of AI tools give rise to the potential for innovation and inventorship.
“In what seems like a very short time, virtually all industries have been touched by AI to some degree,” says Eric Ludwig, whose California-based law firm, Ludwig APC, focuses on intellectual property, data privacy, and business litigation around the globe. “Despite its widespread use, though, few, if any, truly understand the implications of working with AI. I liken it to being adrift within a sea of beginners with few experts.”
Permission Or Forgiveness, Ignorance or Wisdom
When adopting new technologies or trends, early adherents typically seek advice after-the-fact. In the world of intellectual property, such an approach can leave individuals and businesses on treacherous legal footing.
Rather than reactive representation responding to cease-and-desist letters or, worse yet, defending or asserting IP rights in court, proactive guidance is recommended.
“With IP, knowing the lay of the land and the way forward has always been a bit of a calculated assessment, and that’s probably even more true in today’s environment,” says Ludwig. “However, ignorance of how AI impacts IP is no defense when things go south. Inventors, artists, creative types, and all IP owners need to look at the possibilities with AI without rose-colored glasses.”
At present, AI is volatile and new. Its landscape is like that of primeval Earth—both alluring and dangerous at the same time. Many may consider dabbling with AI to create IP too risky, while others will find it far too tempting.
While inventors, entrepreneurs, innovators, and businesses may see signs for the “World’s Fair of AI” and all the potential that represents promoted in their news and social feeds, setting sail with no plan is no way forward. Even Christopher Columbus didn’t pursue “The New World” until he had enlisted the help of a reliable guide, Guillermo Herries—and Columbus wasn’t bumping into thousands of other ships leaving Spain at the same time.
“The race to be first with AI is a crowded field,” explains Ludwig. “IP creators and owners would be well-advised not to rush into the unknown blindly.”
With prize purses in the millions and leaps forward in AI abilities taking place daily, it’s more important than ever for those involved in AI or affected by it to keep apprised of what’s going on both technologically and legally.
Let’s Work Together: Global Experience, Personal Focus
If you have questions about how AI tools and products could affect your business or IP rights, give Ludwig APC a call. As experts in copyright matters, IP, and business litigation, the impact of AI on IP and business best practices is a topic we are monitoring closely. Contact us today to arrange a free consultation: (619) 929-0873 | consultation@ludwigiplaw.com.
