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UK Government Publishes New Software and Cyber Security Codes of Practice

As cyber security continues to make be headline news it is timely that on 7 May 2025 the UK government published a new voluntary Software Security Code of Practice: Software Security Code of Practice – GOV.UK This Code is designed to be complementary to relevant international approaches and existing standards and where possible reflects internationally … Continue Reading

Compelling Rationale for Producing Proprietary Products in U.S. Found in USTR’s Special 301 Report on IP Protection and Enforcement Abroad (Part I)

While the current Trump Administration has based its global trade war on trade imbalances stemming from unfair trade practices of foreign countries, its weapon of choice—increased tariffs—is designed to encourage businesses to relocate manufacturing operations to the U.S., thereby boosting American employment and industrial capacity. The U.S. Trade Representative’s 2025 Special 301 Report, issued on … Continue Reading

WhatsApp? A Legally Binding Contract….

The authors wish to thank Royce Clemente for his contributions to this post. In the recent case of Jaevee Homes Limited v. Mr Steven Fincham, the English High Court has handed down judgment that an exchange of WhatsApp messages between the parties formed a basic and legally binding contract, providing a reminder to parties involved … Continue Reading

AI Circuit Breakers in Legal Contracts: A Safeguard for Business

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into business operations, IT contracts covering the provision of AI systems are evolving to include critical safeguards.  One emerging concept is the AI circuit breaker, a contractual mechanism that provides for an intervention, or override, where an AI system exhibits undesirable or harmful behavior.  When contracting for AI, businesses … Continue Reading

Court: Training AI Model Based on Copyrighted Data Is Not Fair Use as a Matter of Law

In what may turn out to be an influential decision, Judge Stephanos Bibas ruled as a matter of law in Thomson Reuters v. Ross Intelligence that creating short summaries of law to train Ross Intelligence’s artificial intelligence legal research application not only infringes Thomson Reuters’ copyrights as a matter of law but that the copying … Continue Reading

Copyright Office: Copyrighting AI-Generated Works Requires “Sufficient Human Control Over the Expressive Elements” – Prompts Are Not Enough

In January 2025, the Copyright Office released Part 2 of its anticipated three-part series on copyright and artificial intelligence (AI). The report discusses copyrighting works that include AI-generated content and provides guidance for applicants seeking protection of such work. Part 2 emphasizes the importance of “human authorship,” as works purely generated by AI or works … Continue Reading

Breaking News from Germany! Hamburg District Court breaks new ground with judgment on the use of copyrighted material as AI training data

In an eagerly anticipated judgment dated 27 September 2024 (case number 310 O 227/23) the Hamburg District Court dismissed the complaint by photographer Robert Kneschke asserting claims for copyright infringement against non-profit Large-scale Artificial Intelligence Open Network (LAION) based on the use of his photograph in a data set for training AI image generators. Mr. … Continue Reading

Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property Legal Frameworks in the Asia-Pacific Region

Globally, governments are grappling with the emergence of artificial intelligence (“AI”). AI technologies introduce exciting new opportunities but also bring challenges for regulators and companies across all industries. In the Asia-Pacific (“APAC”) region, there is no exception. APAC governments are adapting to AI and finding ways to encourage and regulate AI development through existing intellectual … Continue Reading

Like a Tree Falling that No One Hears: AI-generated Disclosures Have the Potential to Block Patentability of Human Ingenuity

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office continues to seek stakeholder input on AI-generated disclosures and patentability. Earlier this year, USPTO issued a public Request for Comment on the impact of artificial intelligence on prior art, the known understanding of a person of ordinary skill and how this effects patentability, specifically novelty and obviousness of a … Continue Reading

Why the Taylor Swift AI Scandal is Pushing Lawmakers to Address Pornographic Deepfakes

Last month, viral AI-generated pornographic pictures of Taylor Swift circulated on X (formerly Twitter), with one post remaining for 17 hours and receiving more than 45 million views, 24,000 reposts, and hundreds of thousands of likes before the verified account was suspended for violating platform policy. The images, allegedly created using a company’s text-to-image tool … Continue Reading

Don’t Fall for These Ubiquitous Trademark Scammers

Over the past several months, we have seen an increase in notices from alleged trademark firms. The emails are identical or substantially similar to the following: Hi [recipient], I hope this email finds you in good health. I am writing to you on behalf of the legal department of [Trademark Firm]. We have received an … Continue Reading

The California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act Enjoined

On September 18, 2023, NetChoice, LLC — a national trade association with members from the tech and social media industry — obtained a preliminary injunction from the District Court for the Northern District of California preventing the State of California from enforcing the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (“AADC” or the “Act”). The reason? The … Continue Reading

Federal Policymakers: Chasing the Runaway AI Train

The U.S. is generally viewed as “behind” in its regulation of AI compared to the European Union and Asian countries. Yet ChatGPT’s release triggered a tsunami of U.S. legislation in 2023 from federal and state legislators seeking to address perceived concerns with the emerging and fast evolving technology. State legislatures have introduced nearly 200 AI … Continue Reading

The Year of AI Continues: U.S. Copyright Office Wants Your Thoughts on the Potential Regulatory Framework for AI

2023 has been a watershed year for AI with its entry into the broader public consciousness. AI has been front and center in the legal space as well, as this blog has detailed here and here. Now, the U.S. Copyright Office (USCO) is seeking public comments on the various legal, technical and policy issues raised … Continue Reading

Generative AI Is Changing How We Do Business and How We Practice Law

The news about Steven Schwartz, the attorney who asked ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot, to find cases relevant to his client’s lawsuit only to submit a brief full of bogus caselaw, spread gleefully fast, as embarrassing news does. And although we shook our heads in disapproval, I suspect many attorneys were grateful to Mr. Schwartz. … Continue Reading

Human vs AI Analysis of USPTO Updates – How Does Bard Fare?

Generative Artificial Intelligence is a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that can generate a wide range of content types in response to user prompts. Examples of such content can include text, images, audio and video content, etc. There has been pervasive use of Generative AI over the past few months, to create essays, works of … Continue Reading

District Court Rules Internet Archive’s Open Library Project is Not Fair Use

A federal district court in New York held that the Internet Archive’s Open Library project was engaging in copyright infringement by publishing digital copies of millions of books online. Even though the Internet Archive and participating libraries purchased print copies of the books and, for the most part, made them available to borrowers on a … Continue Reading

Intellectual Property Strategies for Development of AI in China

China is at the forefront of the AI development race. While many see China’s AI policies as a cover to curb freedoms and control society, the reality is that China is an active AI developer in a thriving market for AI applications in both the trade and industrial sectors.  There are, however, several challenges related … Continue Reading

What Was Old Is New Again In IP Litigation — Thanks To Suspected Russian State-Sponsored Hack

Top technology trends in the legal profession for 2021 are likely to include artificial intelligence, block chain and cryptocurrencies, autonomous vehicles, digital health, and … court filings on paper. Following a recent widespread cybersecurity breach, the United States federal courts are prohibiting electronic filing of highly confidential documents. Parties must file such documents on paper … Continue Reading

Data Security Ignoring the PCI Data Security Standard Could Cost You!

Is compliance with payment card data security standards being ignored? The recent £500,000 fine, levied by the UK Information Commissioner on DSG, the owner of Currys PC World and Dixons Travel stores, highlights a worrying trend of non-compliance with payment card security standards. Our Security & Privacy Team has prepared a full blog post on … Continue Reading

Promoting innovation through ethically driven AI

Using artificial intelligence (AI) and big data is becoming an increasing conundrum in the drive for competitive advantage. Governments and industry are all developing AI plans, but what does this mean and what are the social consequences? If you are an EU or national policymaker, what regulatory framework should you consider? Are the existing liability … Continue Reading

France’s new investment control in the cybersecurity and technology sectors

Decree No. 2058-1057 of November 29 2018 on foreign investments subject to prior approval France, who in recent years has been relatively open to overseas investors, has extended its control over foreign investment into certain ‘sensitive’ industries, particularly the IT, cybersecurity, communication and technology sectors.… Continue Reading

Securing the Internet of Things

The ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) – a rather vague collective term for the random mix of new technology which has now infiltrated our lives. In simple terms, it is the group of devices that are connected to the Internet. From the fridge which tells its owner that the milk is running low, the interrupting virtual … Continue Reading

The Malicious Use Of AI – Why Those “Black Mirror” Scenarios May Be Closer Than We Think

Developments in artificial intelligence (AI) are proving hugely beneficial for society, both at a commercial and individual level (e.g. face recognition and medical diagnostic technology, route mappers for navigation, robotic pets, cleaners and industrial robots). However, with the advancement of such technology, and the increasing integration of AI into our everyday lives, comes the potential … Continue Reading
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