Author: Papers

[Daniel Gervais] Abstract: This article reviews the application of several IP rights (copyright, patent, sui generis database right, data exclusivity and trade secret) to Big Data. Beyond the protection of software used to collect and process Big Data corpora, copyright’s traditional role is challenged by the relatively unstructured nature of the non-relational (noSQL) databases typical of Big Data corpora. This also impacts the application of the EU sui generis right in databases. Misappropriation (tort-based) or anti-parasitic behaviour protection might apply, where available, to data generated by AI systems that has high but short-lived value. Copyright in material contained in Big Data corpora must also be considered.

[W. Nicholson Price] Abstract: Patent law tries to spur the development of new, better, innovative technology. But it focuses much more on “new” than “better” — and it turns out that “new” carries real social costs. I argue that patent law promotes innovation that diverges from existing technology, either a little (what I call “differentiating innovation”) or a lot (“exploring innovation”), at the expense of innovation that tells us more about existing technology (“deepening innovation”). Patent law’s focus on newness is unsurprising, and fits within a well-told narrative of innovative diversity accompanied by market selection of the best technologies. Unfortunately, innovative diversity brings not only the potential benefits of technological advances, but also costs: incompatibility between different technologies; a spread-out, shallow pool of knowledge; and the underlying costs of developing parallel technologies that aren’t actually better. These costs matter.

[Daryl Lim] Abstract: … AI can make a difference in accelerating disruptive innovation by bringing a data-driven approach to invention and creation. To do so, the law must embrace change and innovation as an imperative in a journey towards an ever-shifting horizon. AI both enables and challenges how we reward individuals whose ingenuity, industry, and determination overcame the frailty of the human condition to offer us inventions that make our lives more efficient and pleasurable. It will take a clear-eyed view to ensure that copyright and patent laws do not impede the very progress they were designed to promote.

[Rebecca Giblin] Abstract: The Berne/TRIPS treaty pairing locks most of the world into outdated and effectively unamendable copyright structures. But members don’t have to comply with the treaties when it comes to their own nationals. In this paper, I argue that the future of international copyright might involve taking the ‘front door out’ – domestically departing from Berne/TRIPS minima to implement reforms that would reclaim currently lost value for authors and simultaneously improve access to knowledge and culture.

[Rebecca Giblin, Jenny Kennedy, Charlotte Pelletier, Julian Thomas, Kimberlee G. Weatherall and Francois Petitjean] Abstract: We investigated the relative availability of e-books to libraries for e-lending in five English-language countries, and analysed their licence terms and prices. … Price and licence differences across countries are largely attributable to ‘Big 5’ publishers. Prices are largely independent of title age (unless the title is in the public domain) or the rights libraries obtain in exchange. Licence terms are not affected by age either, meaning that the most restrictive terms are often applied to older, less demanded books.