Please join the Donald G. Costello College of Business and the Center of Excellence for Cybersecurity Risk Management and Resilience (CRC) featuring Gary Rinkerman, Partner, Pierson Ferdinand, and Kayla Gourlay, Business and Economics Librarian, George Mason University, and moderated by J.P. Auffret, Director of CARE and Co-director of CRC, George Mason. The virtual workshop is one in a series on AI Innovation.

AI, Intellectual Property, Libraries, and the Changing Economics of Publishing and Art

AI has figured prominently in recent and ongoing discussions of Intellectual Property (IP) and its application to AI and AI-assisted innovations. These discussions are critical and can affect US innovation and US technology cultures and policies for generations to come. For example, faced with broad information collection and regulation by the federal government, developers of AI technology and providers of AI-assisted services must be assured that government agents and contractors are trained and incentivized to protect the information. This concern for the protection of propriety AI information is also exponentially impacted by increased industrial espionage. As these AI-related trade secret concerns increase, the US Copyright Office and the US Patent Office have been embroiled in ongoing controversies involving, e.g., AI authorship and invention, as well as means to determine how protection for AI-assisted developments should be secured.

In addition, AI is changing considerations for libraries and how they acquire books, journals, and media, and correspondingly, guidance that libraries provide to patrons, including academic researchers and students.

Indeed, AI is changing the economics of the publishing and art industries.

The presentation will begin with a discussion of unique or accelerated trade secret and confidentiality concerns for commercial entities that create or implement AI technologies. These threats can come from unauthorized access as well as from required access and monitoring by government entities and their contractors. Practical internal measures will be discussed as well as legislative and regulatory developments that should be brought to the fore and supported by US industry.

Copyright law’s application to AI- created and AI-assisted creations will follow the segment on trade secret and confidential commercial information. General principles will be covered as well as Copyright Office regulations regarding how applications for registration must be prepared.
Finally, in addition to developments at the US Patent Office regarding “AI inventorship,” the presentation will cover the dangers that can arise from the use of AI in developing inventions, including inadvertent publication through absorption of the developing technologies into a third-party’s AI training set.

The discussion will conclude with the considerations for libraries and the changing economics for publishing and art.

ABOUT GARY

Mr. Rinkerman is an intellectual property (IP) attorney whose clients range from the largest international companies to startup and medium range businesses. He represents clients in matters involving IP generation, assessment, enforcement, defense, and transactions in the areas of product design, manufacturing, distribution, retail, digital media, software, film, music, advertising and apparel, including footwear, clothing, and accessories, He is also an Honorary Law Professor at Queen Mary University of London School of Law where he teaches U.S. IP law, including copyrights, trademarks, trade dress, patents (design and utility), trade secrets, rights of publicity, transactions, and related unfair competition law. He has counseled and represented clients in major litigation matters involving tens of millions of dollars and has worked on establishing IP best practices and clearance opinion processes for clients, including system establishment, evaluation, and on-site or on-line training presentations for in-house counsel, managers and designers. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Center for Assurance Research and Engineering (CARE) in the Volgenau School of Engineering, George Mason University.

ABOUT KAYLA

Kayla Gourlay, Business and Economics Librarian, George Mason University, supports the research and information needs of over 6,200 students, faculty, and community members for the Donald G. Costello College of Business and the Department of Economics. Actively builds inclusive, accessible collections to support our research and curriculum; engaging in outreach efforts to promote library services and resources; works to integrate information literacy and research skills into the curriculum at a programmatic level via workshops, online modules, class visits, research guides; and supports students and faculty one-on-one via individual research consultations. As a Professional faculty member, engages in university and professional service and research to identify and engage in best practices for business librarianship and information literacy instruction.

ABOUT J.P.

J.P. Auffret is director, Center for Assurance Research and Engineering in the College of Engineering and Computing, co-director, Center of Excellence in Government Cybersecurity Risk Management and Resilience and director, Research Partnerships in the Costello School of Business at George Mason University, USA. Auffret is also co-founder and current president of the International Academy of CIO (IAC), an NGO headquartered in Tokyo.