Although the field of intellectual property (IP) rights’ law has advanced, some say that we have just scratched the surface of the extent and reach of IP rights.
As technology is advancing the legislators are barely able to catch up with the innovations leading to litigation which lands the jury and the judges pulling their hair trying to find answers.
For instance, innovations and creations made by robots have been quite a head scratcher.
With the development of science and technology, artificial intelligence (A”) seems to have changed all aspects of people’s daily lives.
Previously, AI was mostly used in the industrial sectors, like autonomous driving, cloud computing, intelligence manufacturing, etc. Nowadays AI has significantly increased in various creative fields; for example, visual art and journalism.
Recently in China, a court declared that a piece of article written by an ‘intelligent writing assistance’ software lived up to the standard of written works, and therefore had originality and was entitled to be protected under the copyright law.
This is contrary to the landmark rule laid down in Naruto v. Slater in the US which said that the IP regime only permits a ‘person’ to be a proprietor and/or owner of an IP. Thus a selfie clicked by a crested macaque was established not to be a copyright infringement of the animal.
In another instance, European Patent Office (EPO) held that a patent filed by an AI based patent application without a human inventor was not acceptable since the application has to be filed by a human being.
The IP law, which relies on the “sweat of brow” principle of the inventor and justifies protecting the innovation, becomes complicated when the IP is generated by the AI.
As AI is predicted to be a smarter variant of the human inventor, the possibility of AI being better and quicker at generating IP than human beings cannot be ruled out.
WIPO recently invited suggestions and feedback on possible impacts of AI on IP regime thus throwing open the possibility of making substantial changes in the IP laws across the world in the near future. Director of WIPO General Francis Gurry while introducing public consultation process for AI commented:
“Artificial intelligence is set to radically alter the way in which we work and live, with great potential to help us solve common global challenges, but it is also prompting policy questions and challenges,”
As the world has transcended decades with technology innovation during the pandemic, it has also thrown caution into the wind of the complications that lawyers in the field of IP law may face in future.
If you are remotely interested in the technology and the IP law then AI provides an interesting subject to research on.
There are several questions that I can think of which may be the case in question into the future:
- Will AI have all the IP rights in the future?
- How can you prosecute an AI for IP infringement?
- Can AI file for IP infringement on it’s own?
- Can companies and individuals dissolve their responsibility after AI is involved?
To avoid potential litigation it is important for the companies to arrange for AI’s IP work enforcement inside and outside the organisation.
How can you prepare yourself for the IP market?
The first aspect to know is that this market is BIG.
Following industries require IP lawyers right NOW and which may be dominated by AI later:
- OTT platforms
- YouTube and online video platforms
- Industries going online post-pandemic
- Direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands
- E-commerce
- Media Companies
- Tech companies
- Biotech & pharma companies
- Startups
The second aspect is that you will need to prepare yourself to cater to this kind of clientele.
The traditional approach of preparing or learning the work after the client approaches you will not work here.
These are highly informed clients who have very specific issues, and the nature of the work is very technical.
We hear lawyers saying how clients who initially approached them for various kinds of legal work never returned, that is because the lawyer identified irrelevant preliminary issues for the prospective client.
It made the clients ‘judge’ the lawyer for being unprepared. These are painful stories to hear.
Trust me, you don’t want to come across as that.
It’s not only lawyers dealing with clients, the same problem is faced by lawyers trying to land jobs in these coveted sectors.
So how can you make it big in these very promising industries?
How can you grab the lucrative international opportunities?
Are you looking to do international LLM soon?
Are you dreaming of a legal career in the USA or UK?
We are bringing a 3-day bootcamp on How to kickstart your international IP law career today from 14-16 May, 6-9pm.
During this bootcamp, we will teach you how to start assisting foreign IP lawyers, startups and e-commerce businesses – and leverage this experience later for higher studies abroad and landing job opportunities in the USA or UK.
Who must attend:
Lawyers and law students who are:
- Interested in building a career in IP law or work abroad, or work for international clients.
- Interested in build a practice in trademark law, copyright law or patent disputes.
- Aspire to work in IP law firms or IP or TMT teams in big law firms.
- Looking to do an international LLM soon.
- Stuck in dead-end jobs in India that pay less and make you work too much.
- Not finding a job in India due to the bad job market.
- Dreaming of a legal career in the USA or UK.
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