Abstract
In this chapter we initially give an overall discussion of the nature and types of intellectual property rights, namely, patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets in the U.S. We then proceed with a discussion how such rights are protected internationally. AI poses specific new issues affecting such rights and how AI is disrupting universally held protections. Of interest is the case of a monkey taking selfies of itself and whether the owner of the camera used was entitled to claim copyright protection for the selfies. We review a number of cases affecting such rights and the differing interpretations globally.
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Notes
- 1.
Trademark, Patent, or Copyright? U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks-getting-started/trademark-basics/trademark-patent-or-copyright.
- 2.
Copyright Definitions, U.S. Copyright Office, https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/definitions.html.
- 3.
How Long does Copyright Last?, U.S. Copyright Office, https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-duration.html.
- 4.
17 U.S. Code, §106.4.
- 5.
Pub. L. §§104–294, U.S.C. §§1831 et. seq.
- 6.
Pub. L. §§114–153, May 11, 2016.
- 7.
Trade secret, LEGAL INFORMATION INSTITUTE, Cornell L.S., https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/trade_secret.
- 8.
Intellectual Property Enforcement, U.S. DEP’T OF STATE, https://www.state.gov/e/eb/cba/ipe/index.htm.
- 9.
Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (March 20, 1883; effective July 7, 1884, and amended June 2, 1934 and July 14, 1967) (the Paris Convention). The Convention may be found at https://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/paris/.
- 10.
World International Property Organization WIPO), Summary of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/paris/summary_paris.html. WIPO is one of 15 specialized organizations in the United Nations. www.wipo.int/portal/en/index.html.
- 11.
Id.
- 12.
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1971), https://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/text.jsp?file_id=283698.
- 13.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), established in 1967, is an agency of the United Nations (UN) with 191 member states that administers the several international conventions acting as the global forum for intellectual property services, policy, information, and cooperation, https://www.wipo.int/about-wipo/en/.
- 14.
Berne Convention, Art. 2(1).
- 15.
Berne Convention, Art. 2 (2)–(5).
- 16.
Berne Convention Art. 2 (4)(7).
- 17.
Berne Convention Art. 7.
- 18.
Berne Convention Art. 5.
- 19.
Berne Convention, Art. 6.
- 20.
World Trade Organization, Standards concerning the availability, scope, and use of intellectual property rights, §7, Art. 39, https://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/27-trips_04d_e.htm.
- 21.
Greenaway Scott, Artificial Intelligence: Challenges for Intellectual Property, BUSINESSNEWSWALES (Aug. 7, 2018), quoting Lorna Bolton, https://businessnewswales.com/artificial-intelligence-challenges-for-intellectual-property/.
- 22.
World Intellectual Property Organization, Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual property: an interview with Francis Gurry, WIPO MAGAZINE (Sept. 2018), https://wipo.int/wipo_magazine//en/2018/05/article_0001.html.
- 23.
Id.
- 24.
World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO’s First “Technology Trends” Study Probes Artificial Intelligence: IBM and Microsoft are Leaders Amid Recent Global Upsurge in AI Inventive Activity, Jan. 31, 2019, https://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2019/article_0001.html. The executive summary from which the text material is derived from can be found at https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_pub_1055-exe_summary1.pdf.
- 25.
Id.
- 26.
U.S. Copyright Law, §102(a), https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html. See also, U.S. Copyright Office, What Does Copyright Protect?, https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html.
- 27.
An excellent summary of AI issues is Protecting Artificial Intelligence IP: Patents, Trade Secrets, or Copyrights? JONES DAY (Jan. 2018), https://www.jonesday.com/files/Publication/c2577689-4a50-409a-98f6-a9bc7c9620a9/Presentation/PublicationAttachment/04cf20ba-60eb-4620-93cc-e90380f84c85/Protecting%20Artificial%20Intelligence%20IP.pdf.
- 28.
For a detailed description of the occurrence of selfies by the monkey discussed in the following case, see, Monkey selfie copyright dispute, WIKIPEDIA, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_selfie_copyright_dispute.
- 29.
U.S. Copyright Office, Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, 3d Ed. Sept. 2017, https://www.copyright.gov/comp3/.
- 30.
Id., §313.2, Works That Lack Human Authorship.
- 31.
Karen Hao, Inside the world of AI that forges beautiful art and terrifying deepfakes, MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW (Dec. 1, 2018), https://www.technologyreview.com/g/deepfakes/.
- 32.
Infopaq Intn’l v. Danske Dagblades, ECJ (17 July 2009), Swarb.co.uk, https://swarb.co.uk/infopaq-international-v-danske-dagblades-forening-ecj-17-jul-2009/.
- 33.
Burrow-Giles Lithographic Co. v. Sarony, 111 U.S. 53 (1884). Text of the case can be found at https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/111/53.
- 34.
Kalin Hristov, Artificial Intelligence and the Copyright Dilemma, 57 IDEA 431, No. 3, at 438, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2976428.
- 35.
Andres Guadamuz, Artificial intelligence and copyright, WIPO MAGAZINE (Oct. 2017), https://www.wipo.int/export/sites/www/wipo_magazine/en/pdf/2017/wipo_pub_121_2017_05.pdf.
- 36.
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, U.K., http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/section/9.
- 37.
AI and IP: copyright in AI-generated works (UK law) Can copyright subsist in AI-generated work, CLIFFORD CHANCE (Dec. 18, 2018), https://talkingtech.cliffordchance.com/en/ip/copyright/ai-and-ip%2D%2Dcopyright-in-ai-generated-works%2D%2Duk-law-.html.
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Ryan E. Long, Artificial Intelligence Art – Who Owns the Copyright, CIS (May 9, 2018), http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2018/05/artificial-intelligence-art-who-owns-copyright-0.
- 39.
Nicole Martinez, Can an AI Machine Hold Copyright Protection Over Its Work?, ART LAW JOURNAL (June 1, 2017), https://alj.artrepreneur.com/ai-machine-copyright/.
- 40.
Yasser M. El-Gamal and Ehab Samuel, Copyright Protection for AI Machine Created Works?, MANETT PHELPS & PHILLIPS LLP (Sept. 28, 2017), https://www.manatt.com/Insights/Articles/2017/Copyright-Protection-for-AI-Machine-Created-Works.
- 41.
Molly Price, AI gets spicy with new McCormick flavors, CNET (Feb. 6, 2019), https://www.cnet.com/news/ai-gets-spicy-with-new-mccormick-flavors/.
- 42.
Goldstein v. California, 412 U.S. 546 (1973). Text of the case may be found at https://www.law.cornell.edu/copyright/cases/412_US_546.htm.
- 43.
Id., at 561.
- 44.
For a discussion, see Martinez, supra at note 606.
- 45.
Swapnil Tripathi and Chandi Ghatak, Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property Law, 7 Christ U. L. J. 83–97 (2017) at 89, RESEARCH GATE, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323557478.
- 46.
For a discussion of the implications of AI authorship and freedom of speech, see Margot E. Kaminski, Authorship, Disrupted: AI Authors in Copyright and First Amendment Law, 51 UC Davis Law Review 589 (2017), https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1735610.
- 47.
Article 6bis of The Berne Convention recites the “moral rights” as “(1) Independently of the author’s economic rights, and even after the transfer of the said rights, the author shall have the right to claim authorship of the work and to object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification of, or other derogatory action in relation to, the said work, which would be prejudicial to his honor or reputation.” For a discussion of some of the issues from a European perspective, see Begona Gonzalez Otero, Before the Singularity: Copyright and the Challenges of Artificial Intelligence, KLUWER COPYRIGHT BLOG, http://copyrightblog.kluweriplaw.com/2018/09/25/singularity-copyright-challenges-artificial-intelligence/.
- 48.
For a discussion, see Hogan Lovells, Litigating intellectual property issues: The impact of AI and machine learning, LEXOLOGY (Jan. 19, 2019), https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=1176050a-f4ee-4919-891e-366d06c46f45.
- 49.
Patent Act, 35 U.S.C. §§1–376.
- 50.
35 U.S.C. §100(f). There are similar restrictions in the U.K., Ireland, India, Hong Kong, and New Zealand. Artificial Intelligence: Why AI Inventions Will Disrupt Patent, CILGLOBAL IP LTD, http://www.cilglobalip.com/blog/2018/09/07/artificial-intelligence-why-ai-inventions-will-disrupt-patent-law/.
- 51.
Gottschalk v. Benson, 409 U.S. 63 (1972). Text of case can be found in FindLaw, https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/409/63.html.
- 52.
Bilski v. Kappos, 561 U.S. 593 (2010). Text of case can be found in JUSTIA, https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/561/593/.
- 53.
Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, U.S. Supreme Court slip opinion, No. 10-1150 (2012), https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/10-1150.pdf.
- 54.
Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Intern., 573 U.S. 208 (2014). Text of case can be found at https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/13-298_7lh8.pdf.
- 55.
Id.
- 56.
Remarks Delivered by Director Iancu at the Intellectual Property Owners Association 46th Annual Meeting, United States Patent and Trademark Office (Sept. 24, 2018), https://www.uspto.gov/about-us/news-updates/remarks-director-iancu-intellectual-property-owners-46th-annual-meeting.
- 57.
Herbert C. Wamsley, American Innovation at Risk: The New Congress Must Clarify Which Inventions Are Eligible for Patents, IP WATCHDOG (Dec. 19, 2018), http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2018/12/19/new-congress-must-clarify-which-inventions-eligible-patents/id=104383/.
- 58.
Joint IPO-AIPLA Proposal Concerning Legislative Amendment of 35 U.S.C. § 101, Letter to Hon. Andrei Iancu (May 3, 2018), https://www.ipo.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IPO-AIPLA-Ltr-to-Iancu-re-Joint-101-Proposal.pdf.
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Electric Power Group LLC. V. Alstrom S.A., 830 F.3d 1350 (Fed. Cir. 2016).
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Id. A text of the decision may be found at http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/opinions-orders/15-1778.Opinion.7-28-2016.1.PDF. A discussion of the impact of the Alice and Electric Power decision is that of Kate Gaudry and Samuel Hayim, Artificial Intelligence Technologies Facing Heavy Scrutiny at the USPTO, IPWATCHDOG (Nov. 28, 2018), http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2018/11/28/artificial-intelligence-technologies-facing-heavy-scrutiny-uspto/id=103762/.
- 61.
Gaudry, Id.
- 62.
Athena Diagnostics v. Mayo Collaborative, No. 17-2508 (Fed. Cir. 2019), discussed by Donald Zuhn, PATENT DOCS, https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/athena-diagnostics-inc-v-mayo-71769/.
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Gene Quinn, The Federal Circuit is Shirking Its Constitutional Duty to Provide Certainty for Critical Innovation, IPWATCHDOG (Feb. 12, 2019), https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2019/02/12/federal-circuit-shirking-constitutional-duty-provide-certainty-critical-innovation/id=106234/.
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Ariosa Diagnostics, Inc. v. Sequenom, Inc., 788 F.3d 1371 (Fed. Cir. 2015). A commentary on the case and concerning several applications for medical patents that were denied is by Susan Y. Tull, Patenting the Future of Medicine: FINNEGAN (Jan/Feb. 2018), https://www.finnegan.com/en/insights/patenting-the-future-of-medicine-the-intersection-of-patent-law-and-artificial-intelligence-in-medicine.html.
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Tull, id.
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Artificial Intelligence: Why AI Inventions Will Disrupt Patent, CILGLOBAL IP LTD. (July 9, 2018), http://www.cilglobalip.com/blog/2018/09/07/artificial-intelligence-why-ai-inventions-will-disrupt-patent-law/.
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35 U.S. Code §112, Specification.
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A Bayesian network is a type of statistical model that represents a set of variables and their conditional dependencies by use of a directed acyclic graph. Example cited is a graph showing probabilistic relationships between diseases and symptoms. Bayesian network, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayesian_network.
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- 87.
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G-II 3.3.1 of the Guidelines.
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Girasa, R. (2020). Intellectual Property Rights and AI. In: Artificial Intelligence as a Disruptive Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35975-1_7
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