From creation to regulation: The impact of the AI Act and Data Act on IP law
As AI technologies, particularly generative ones, continue to advance and reshape the digital landscape, the critical impact of intellectual property law for businesses utilizing AI-driven solutions is in clear evidence – from two main perspectives: How can I protect my rights in an AI system? And what comes out of it?
First, how to build a viable IP protection strategy for an AI model, as well as for individual components of an AI system, which constitute essential value factors? Which IP right – patent, copyright, database right, trade secrets – is best suited to protect which AI component – training data, AI model, algorithms?
And second, can the output of an AI system be the subject of IP protection? Even if blanket protection of AI creations is generally denied, specific pieces of AI output may arguably enjoy IP protection. Where AI is employed creatively, and in particular in instances where it is used as a tool – such as in a camera or steering a paintbrush –it is not convincing that copyright protection should be ruled out in each and every case.