Intellectual Property and Copyright in AI
AI IP support: TDM exception, opt-outs, ownership of generative AI output, patents for AI-assisted inventions, trademarks for AI products.
What we cover
TDM exception & opt-out (DSM Art. 4)
Support for AI providers and rightholders on text and data mining rights reservations.
Generative AI output copyright
Who owns AI-generated output? Contract analysis, CC marking, attribution.
Patents for AI-assisted inventions
EPO / national strategy when AI contributes to the inventive process (EPO Guidelines G-II 3.3.2).
Trade secrets in training data
Protection of proprietary datasets and model parameters as trade secrets.
Trademarks & AI product names
AI product trademark filing, confusion analysis, mandatory markings.
AI copyright litigation
Defence / claim in training and output infringement cases (NYT v. OpenAI, Getty, Stability).
Applicable legal framework
- §Directive (EU) 2019/790 — DSM Directive (Art. 3 research, Art. 4 general TDM)
- §Romanian Law 8/1996 on copyright (transposing DSM via Law 69/2022)
- §Berne Convention and TRIPS Agreement
- §EU AI Act Art. 53 — GPAI copyright policy and training data summary
- §EPO and national patent office guidelines on AI-assisted inventions
How we work
- 1
IP audit of the AI pipeline
We identify all IP rights potentially infringed or created across training, inference and output.
- 2
TDM & opt-out strategy
We implement rights reservations (robots.txt, ai.txt, metadata) for rightholders or check compliance for providers.
- 3
Output & licensing policies
Clear output ownership terms in T&Cs and enterprise contracts.
- 4
Patent & trademark strategy
Filing strategy reflecting AI specifics and recent case law.
- 5
Litigation & cease-and-desist
Representation in AI-related copyright and trademark disputes.
Frequently asked questions
Can I train an AI on any publicly available text?
No. DSM Art. 4 allows TDM subject to opt-out. If the rightholder has reserved rights (AI directives in robots.txt, metadata, site T&Cs), commercial training on that content requires a licence.
Who owns the output of ChatGPT or Midjourney?
It depends on the provider's T&Cs. OpenAI assigns rights to the user. However copyright itself is contested: the US Copyright Office requires meaningful human creativity; the EU position is still developing.
Can I patent an AI-made invention?
The inventor must be a natural person (DABUS case). But AI-assisted inventions, where a human identifies the problem and application, remain patentable if humans contributed to the inventive concept.
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