Benefits Of Using Copyrights To Protect Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning Inventions

• Published date: 12 July 2022
• Subject Matter: Intellectual Property, Copyright, Patent, Trade Secrets
• Law Firm: Mintz
• Author: Mr Monique Winters Macek, Meena Seralathan and Lily Zhang

We previously discussed which portions of an artificial intelligence/machine-learning ("AI/ML") platform could be patented or protected under trade secret, such as related to biotech and synthetic biology. Equally important to the discussion of how to protect components of an AI/ML platform, however, is the extent to which copyright protection may be useful or beneficial to the developer of the platform. In this post, we explain what can be protected by copyright in an AI/ML platform. We also explore when it is appropriate to protect portions of AI/ML platforms using a copyright, how to properly enforce copyrights, as well as when to consider using copyright protection over patent or trade secret protection.

What Can be Protected by Copyright in an AI/ML Platform

Copyright allows an entity to protect tangible, original, and reproducible works, such as music, films, photographs, books, software code, and websites. Rather than protecting ideas or processes in protectable works, copyright can protect how ideas are expressed (including protecting how information is organized and structured in a body of work, or how information is conveyed in software code). Copyright owners enjoy many exclusive rights to their work, including the right to reproduce, distribute, perform, and display their work. Copyright protection can last several decades, far surpassing the period of time that a patent may be enforceable.

Copyright law affords protection for many components of an AI/ML platform, from the software itself to data used within the platform. For example, a copyright on source code can prevent others from reproducing the source code verbatim to use or distribute to others, reproducing the source code in a different computer language, and (in some circumstances) reproducing features of the source code (such as structure or non-functional features of the source code), even if not copied verbatim from the protected source code. Many companies have successfully protected their software from others using copyright protection. See, e.g., Microsoft Corp. v. Buy More, Inc., 703 Fed. Appx. 476, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 11454, 2017 WL 2790693 (where a court granted Microsoft $1,950,000 in statutory damages upon a summary judgment determination that Buy More had infringed Microsoft's copyright on Windows 7 and Office 2007); Oracle America, Inc. v. Envisage Technologies, LLC, No. 3:21-cv-03540 (N.D.C.A), and Oracle America, Inc. v. NEC Corp. for America, No. 5:21-cv-05270...