No Separate Category of IP Rights for AI in India: Good Approach After All
From Abhivardhan, our Chairperson
This is a post from Abhivardhan, our Chairperson.
What a crazy day. On one hand we see some updates from the USPTO (thanks Michael J. Silva for pointing it out).
On the other hand - we see an interesting response by a Minister of State (MoS) of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India on protecting AI-generated works under the existing IPR regime.
Now - here is the breakdown of his response in the Rajya Sabha.
The MoS hasn’t stated anything new. He is justified to say that AI-generated works (he refers copyright) including patents and others can be protected under the current IPR regime.
Why?
Only individuals, groups of individuals and companies can own the intellectual properties associated with #artificialintelligence. That’s the letter of international copyright law.
However, while he has stated something obvious - the position he’s taken is significant for India.
How?
It’s simple. As Andrew Ng had written based on his experiences at World Economic Forum 2024 at Davos for DeepLearning.AI that big companies are still trying to persuade governments to adopt anti-competitive AI regulations - India’s rather ordinary stance can be interpreted in a way that if investment and economic opportunities are provided well - India can be a safe and reasonable hub to nurture AI innovations.
Promoting anti-competitive regulations on AI by MNCs must be observed carefully by governments.
This statement is also reasonable from a point of compensating for using these IPs. The reason is that if you create a separate category of rights, then you might be at the risk to be not in a position to compensate or justify your contribution to the intellectual property as well as the economic ramifications associated.
I have discussed AI and intellectual property rights in the 2nd edition of my book on artificial intelligence and international law. Feel free read the book at https://amzn.eu/d/fRZi2r4
P.S.: I will come up with an insight on USPTO’s guidelines on AI patentability soon.