AI & Intellectual Property

AI & Intellectual Property: COPYRIGHT and the fruit of the inventive tree.

A short summary of the impact of Artificial Intelligence on copyright and intellectual propertyas delivered to the international conference on Intellectual Property and Artificial Intelligence at King’s College London in April 2023.
by Nick Lockett

In the UK, the response to intellectual property infringement primarily takes place through Civil Courts. Key agencies like BorderForce, Trading Standards, and the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), handle various scales of infringement, from small-scale counterfeits to large wholesale piracy. BorderForce is tasked with intercepting infringing material at the borders, while PIPCU, run by the City of London Police and funded by the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO), coordinates industry, government, and law enforcement efforts to counter IP crime. Despite these measures, most criminal prosecutions require a cooperative complainant and considering the high costs, very few private criminal prosecutions are pursued. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) oversees most prosecutions, focusing mainly on counterfeiting and online piracy. Most piracy and infringement actions, along with all trade-secret actions, are carried out in civil courts due to the lower burden of proof required compared to criminal cases.