At this stage we anticipate holding a workshop via Zoom in late August or early September.

Call for papers

The deadline for paper proposals of 200-300 words is March 31, 2021.

The various forms of artificial intelligence (AI) represent a set of paradigm-shifting technologies that will likely reshape many areas of law. Amongst the areas of law likely to be affected lie the various fields of intellectual property (IP) law. Within copyright, patents, trademarks and passing off there exists well-established rules driven by a desire to protect human creativity, human ingenuity and enterprise. These bodies of law exist as property systems with rules governing entry, ownership, exploitation, infringement, exceptions and remedies. In a myriad of different ways, AI is likely to unsettle established understanding and equilibriums within each field.

Thus far, the academic and policy debate has centered upon whether AI should be accommodated within the different fields of IP. That debate is far from settled. Yet, past that debate lies a more complex set of questions concerning what could or should happen once AI enters into each field of IP. The issue is that any accommodation of AI within IP unsettles different trade-offs with the result that new compromises and equilibriums must be found. The consequences of these measures are likely to be far-reaching with the impacts being felt upon a variety of actors within IP. Addressing this secondary set of questions will likely shed significant light on the primary question of whether AI should be accommodated within the various sets of IP laws.

In this call for papers, we seek paper proposals on a range of topics pertaining to AI and IP including:

- The use of AI technologies to enforce intellectual property rights;
- The relationship between big data sets and various forms of IP;
- The viability of exceptions doctrines such as fair use and fair dealing in light of AI;
- Whether AI undermines the rationale for IP protection or alternately whether AI undermines the reason for the existence of various ‘gatekeeper’ doctrines within IP;
- Whether new policy compromises can be reached that would accommodate the commercial concerns of those who use AI technologies and other impacted actors;
- The likely impact of AI on fields of IP such as copyright, patents, trademarks, passing off and the like.  

We invite paper proposals that examine the doctrinal and policy consequences of accommodating AI within different areas of IP. These proposals can be critical, supportive or neutral on the consequences of this accommodation. Our purpose in this project is to collect together a set of informed and considered viewpoints that can guide policy development in this area of the law.