INTRODUCTION TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
Artificial Intelligenceconsists of two words: ‘Artificial,’ which means ‘man-made,’ and ‘Intelligence,’ which means ‘thinking power.’ Hence, we can say AI is “a man-made thinking power.”[1]So, we can interpret it as AI being machines that can act and think like humans and are capable of making decisions like them.[2]Different AI tools do various tasks like gathering and rearrange textual and numerical data, for example, Deep AI and Midjourney, provide visual content, and ChatGPT and Google Bards produce written responses.[3] As a result, AI technologies are created with particular demands and applications.
With the latest developments of text, images, graphics, animations, poems, songs, and music, it seems evidentiary that how creative and knowledgeable AI systems are getting intertwined henceforth, with growing technologies,we must overview the existing IPR laws that will be relevant in the field of AI. The issue that is of utmost importance in the field of AI & IPR is who will hold ownership and authorship of the works generated through AI. At present, under the Copyright Law only human creations are given protection.[4]
Considering the importance of the issue, the World Intellectual Property Organization has organised various sessions regarding AI & IPR. In 2019, WIPO launched a public consultation and its Second Session was held on 13th December, 2019, discussing about impact of AI in the field of Copyright, Patents, data, design etc.[5] Till now, WIPO has conducted 10 sessions have been held and 10th session was held on November, 2024.
Some of the recent case laws that highlights AI &IPR:-
- The DABUS case,[6]an AI system under the name of DABUS was used to invent two products, the application was filed before various countries for patenting the products. US, UK, EU and Germany did not give patent to AI. South Africa allowed AI as an inventor and Australia initially, allowed DABUS (AI) as inventor but, it was later overturned in an appeal.
- Image Processing Technologies LLC v. Samsung Electronics Co,[7]the plaintiff in this particular case filed a case against Samsung for infringing various patents using AI. After findings by the court, it was observed by the Court and ruled in favour of Image processing stating that Samsung has violated patents.
These case laws show that in the field of IPR, AI is advancing at a swift pace and there is a need for a better legislative framework to keep the pace. We can encourage innovation and guarantee that the advantages of AI are equitably distributed by making sure that IPR regulations keep up with technical developments.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE & COPYRIGHT LAW
With more usage of AI for creativity, it has started to challenge copyright law. In the case of “Edmond de Belamy” artwork,[8]a French artist used AI system to make a portrait called ‘Edmond De Belamy’ and it was sold for $400,000 at an auction.The creator was given credit but raised concerns regarding the amount of AI used in the creation. Such cases pose pertinent questions, who will be the author/owner in AI-generated work?If humans and AI are involved, can they get the status of co-authorship?Can AI-generated work be given copyright protection?
In 2022, the Colorado State Fair Fine Arts Competition was held.Artist Jason Allen used Midjourney, an AI image-generation tool, to create an artwork under the name ‘Théâtre D’Opéra Spatial’ and won first place in the digital category.[9]This news sparked criticism on Twitter andone of the users commented, ‘We’re watching the death of artistry unfold before our eyes’.[10]
Thus, AI is giving tough challenges to Copyright Law, and it is getting difficult to cope with the new technology as it surrounds so many burgeoning issues like data training the AI, ownership, AI input to output, prompts etc. Many countries our facing this issue. Through this paper, we will discuss a comparative study between India, US and UK and what is the current scenario, the steps taken towards this issue and how they will tackle the issue.
[1]World Travel & Tourism and Microsoft, “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence Technology” 4 (JANUARY 2024) available athttps://cdn-dynmedia-1.microsoft.com/is/content/microsoftcorp/microsoft/final/en-us/microsoft-brand/documents/2024-wttc-introduction-to-ai.pdf (last visited on Mar. 26, 2025)
[2]Ibid.
[3]Ibid.
[4]Aditi Chauhan and Kashmir Singh, “Intellectual Property Rights and Artificial Intelligence: A Path to the Future” 29 Researchgate 655-72 (2023).available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/377002448 (last visited on Mar. 23, 2025)
[5] World Intellectual Property Organization. “Draft issues paper on intellectual property policy and artificial intelligence’ (2019),available athttps://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/mdocs/en/wipo_ip_ai_2_ge_20/wipo_ip_ai_2_ge_20_1.pdf (last visited on Mar. 25, 2025)
[6]Saransh Chaturvedi, The Curious Case of Dabus: Who should own the AI-Related inventions? SCC TIMES ONLINE, (26th December, 2020), available at https://www.scconline.com/blog/post/2020/12/26/the-curious-case-of-dabus-who-should-own-the-ai-related-inventions/ (last visited on Mar. 23, 2025)
[7]Mohd Akhter Ali and M. Kamraju, “Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Intellectual Property Rights: Challenges and Opportunities” 1 Osmania University Journal of IPR [OUJIPR] 21-50 (July, 2023), available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/376751087_Impact_of_Artificial_Intelligence_on_Intellectual_Property_Rights_Challenges_and_Opportunities (last visited on Mar. 26, 2025).
[8]Ziv Epstein, Sydney Levine, David G. R., and Iyad Rahwan, “Who Gets Credit for AI-Generated Art?” iScience, 23, 101515 (2020),available at https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(20)30707-0 (Last visited on Mar. 23, 2025).
[9]Matthew Gault, “An AI-Generated Artwork Won First Place at a State Fair Fine Arts Competition, and Artists are Pissed”, Vice, Aug. 31, 2022, available at: https://www.vice.com/en/article/an-ai-generated-artwork-won-first-place-at-a-state-fair-fine-arts-competition-and-artists-are-pissed/ (last visited on Mar. 25, 2025).
[10]Ibid.