How Much Did We Invest in AI?

On Monday, October 21, Robins Kaplan partner David Prange presented, “How Much Did We Invest in AI? Protecting AI Investments Using a Holistic Legal Approach to Avoid Losing Your Shirt” at the 2024 Licensing Executives Society Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

Session Description:

Robust interest in the advancement and development of individual artificial intelligence technologies means that entities are making large investments. And a question that should accompany those investment decisions is how are they protected? Federal, state, and common law offer a variety of legal frameworks (patent, copyright, trade secret, contract, etc.) but these frameworks purposefully protect different intellectual property rights, and thus the protection of AI investments requires a holistic approach that applies the legal framework to various aspects of the AI framework.

This session explored: (1) the potential scope of patent protection and the potential path in this challenging patenting environment to protect AI innovation with patents; (2) applicability and relationship of patent to copyright protection, the relative cost and investment for obtaining and maintaining federal protection and the relative limitations of each; (3) the rising importance of trade secret protection, what does employing reasonable measures mean in practice, and are there best practices for employee management to improve protection strategies; and (4) does a contract help and how should it be used in view of other protection strategies, and are there other contracting language useful for protecting AI assets. Concluding, we explored the role of the employee in the protection plan.