The “intellectual” in IP still means something - AI and the disruption of IP

Intellectual property law stands to be significantly disrupted by the rapid advancement of AI and automation. Can an AI system be an inventor of a patent? Who owns copyright in the output of generative AI? Should prompt engineers be given any particular legal rights in their work? On the other hand, there remains legal risk for AI systems infringing someone else’s IP, particularly in the space of machine learning. Or is all this just too much, too fast, for the IP system to keep apace?

Tech businesses and startups can build their business plans around their intellectual property, and may even use their IP as their point of differentiation. However, in the age of robots, automation, machine learning and generative AI, businesses now need to start rethinking how they conceptualise what is their intellectual property.

Speaker Bio

David Wilson is the founder and principal of Stratocumulus Legal, a legal consultancy with a particular focus on intellectual property, technology and related areas.

Prior to commencing Stratocumulus Legal in May 2020, he had 20-odd years’ career experience at international law firms, building up a significant breadth of legal experience as an intellectual property and technology lawyer, a commercial disputes practitioner, a generalist commercial legal advisor and an in-house counsel for a two-year period on secondment to a major Japanese corporation in Tokyo.

Across his career, David has advised on the subsistence, proprietorship, exploitation, licensing, assignment and infringement of intellectual property rights including copyright and moral rights, patents, trademarks, domain names and business names, designs, confidential information, trade secrets and data. He has undertaken this work across a range of sectors, including software and IT. His legal interests include application of the law to emerging technologies, such as AI, automation and 3D-printing.

Kick off will be at 6.15 to allow people to park in the state library car park for free (after 6 pm)