WIREDGOV

At the end of June the Intellectual Property Office published the outcome of their consultation on AI and IP which closed in January this year.

The consultation focused on three areas:

1. Copyright protection for computer-generated works (CGWs) without a human author.
2. Licensing or exceptions to copyright for text and data mining (TDM).
3. Patent protection for AI-devised inventions.

In areas 1 and 3, the Government has concluded to seek to changes to the law. With regards to copyright protection for CGWs without a human author, the Government argues there is no evidence of harm from the current approach to protections and that changes could have unintended consequences. They will therefore keep the law under review as AI use evolves. When it comes to patent protection, the Government response highlights that most respondents did not feel AI could be said to make inventions without some sort of human intervention. This will, however, also be kept under review. Both of these outcomes are in line with the recommendations in techUK’s response, which can be found here.

On TDM licensing and copyright exceptions, the Government opted for a new exception which allows TDM for any purpose. Lawful access to content will therefore be the only requirement to conduct any form of TDM. techUK did not make a specific recommendation on this question of the consultation, but instead offered views on the strengths and weaknesses of the different options. For any members who would like to discuss this part of the consultation outcome with the IPO, get in touch with emilie.sundorph@techuk.org and we can facilitate further conversations.