existing legal and contractual models. As an example, developers who use open source AI software tools to develop portions of their proprietary software codebase may not be able to obtain copyright protection for the overall software product if they are unable to separately identify the human and AIcreated code, or the inventor for patent purposes. And even then, under current Copyright Office and PTO guidance, that still may not be enough. Trade secret protections (maintaining confidentiality where practical) will remain important as a fallback, but AI adopters need to be mindful that prompts and inputs into an AI tool are generally not confidential and could result in the loss of trade secret protection. In light of the lag time, or even inability to secure comprehensive legal protections for new technologies (e.g., with AI today), innovators will need to weigh the ramifications of lessened or no protection against being first to market and capturing a significant What are the key considerations regarding the protecting and enforcement of IP rights relating to the development of new and emerging technology? Each technology advancement brings its own unique challenges for innovators hoping to protect the fruits of their efforts and investment. As mentioned, it can take time for laws to catch up. In the interim, companies will need to use and rely on the traditional IP avenues (copyright, patent, trademark and trade secrets) to protect and enforce their IP rights in new technologies they are developing and planning to commercialize. As legal advisors, we have to be creative to fit new technologies into WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM 11 While the NFT hype may be subsiding, the current buzz is now around Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, which appear be here to stay. Michael Plumleigh Partner at M&H LLP
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