AI and Intellectual Property: The New Frontier
Artificial intelligence has come a long way since the videos of actors eating spaghetti and computers beating seasoned players in games. With improved research and development of artificial intelligence solutions has come the dawn of a new era of creativity for engineers, artists, musicians, and other members of society.
The possibilities are seemingly endless with artificial intelligence. With a few prompts, new designs can be created, logos can be invented, and a multimillion dollar startup can be established. While these opportunities are great, there are challenges that cannot be ignored. Challenges stemming from intellectual property rights cause uncertainty over how artificial intelligence can be used without undermining the rights of people to their original works.
In the UK, the government launched a consultation, seeking evidence and views on options to deal with how artificial intelligence is used in the patent and copyright systems. The consultation closed on 25 February 2025 and drew over 11,500 responses. It explored options like expanding text and data mining exceptions while allowing rights holders to reserve their works (e.g., via opt-out mechanisms). In the USA, the Copyright Office reports that purely AI-generated outputs lack copyright protection because of the human authorship requirement. However, if human creativity is sufficient, AI-assisted works can be protected. Protection of works generated by artificial intelligence requires “sufficient human control over the expressive elements of a work”.
As governments around the world try to create new laws and regulations for artificial intelligence, it becomes clear that opinions differ significantly over the approaches to ensuring that rights are protected. Only 3% of people who responded to the UK AI and copyright consultation backed the opt-out plan, a plan which would require rights reservation/opt-out of the use of artist and copyright holder material by artificial intelligence. 88% of respondents were in support of stronger licensing/rights-holder control. The government is exploring technical working groups on transparency, licensing, and enforcement. Policy proposals are expected to be presented by March 18 2026.
Litigation risks increase as more creators raise disputes about the use of artificial intelligence to create works using their original works in data sets. With AI-related litigation seen as the most significant emerging risk, more may need to be done to resolve points of contention and improve stability for creators, organisations, and the people that depend on them.
Disclaimer: This publication is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute formal legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship.