We recently posted about the Jobiak case which raises the interesting question of whether scraping an AI-generated database of job listings constitutes copyright infringement (among other claims). Plaintiff has submitted its opposition, in which it raises the substantive arguments to the copyright claim set forth below.Continue Reading Jobiak’s Opposition to Motion to Dismiss Copyright Infringement Claims on AI-Created Database
Intellectual Property
USPTO Issues Additional Guidance on Use of AI Tools in Connection with USPTO Matters
The USPTO issued guidance on February 6, 2024 that clarified existing rules and policies and discussed how to apply them when AI is used in the drafting of submissions to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB). As a follow up, the USPTO has now published additional guidance in the Federal Register on some important issues that patent and trademark professionals, innovators, and entrepreneurs must navigate while using artificial intelligence (AI) in matters before the USPTO. The guidance recognizes that practitioners use AI to prepare and prosecute patent and trademark applications. It reminds individuals involved in proceedings before the USPTO of the pertinent rules and policies, identifies some risks associated with the use of AI, and provides suggestions to mitigate those risks. It states that while the USPTO is committed to maximizing AI’s benefits, the USPTO recognizes the need, through technical mitigations and human governance, to cabin the risks arising from the use of AI in practice before the USPTO. The USPTO has determined that existing rules protect the USPTO’s ecosystem against such potential perils and thus no new rules are currently being proposed.Continue Reading USPTO Issues Additional Guidance on Use of AI Tools in Connection with USPTO Matters
White House Executive Order on AI Punts on IP Issues
The White House Executive Order on AI (“EO”) is comprehensive and covers a wide range of topics. We provided a summary here. It addresses many of the risks and problems that can arise with AI. One of the topics which raises many legal issues, particularly with generative AI (“genAI”), is intellectual property. Some of the IP issues include: i) whether training AI models on copyrighted content constitutes infringement; ii) whether the output of genAI that is based on copyright-protected training material constitutes infringement; iii) what level of human authorship/inventorship is required for copyright/patent protection of genAI-assisted works; iv) whether genAI tools that create art “in the style of” particular artists constitutes copyright infringement and/or violate the right of publicity; v) whether genAI tools that are trained on copyright-protected materials must maintain copyright management information; and vi) whether genAI tools, such as AI code generators, that are trained on open source software, must comply with the terms of the open source licenses.Continue Reading White House Executive Order on AI Punts on IP Issues