Duane Morris – The Artificial Intelligence Blog

March 24, 2025March 24, 2025 by Duane Morris

How an AI Case Affects Animal Law

On March 18. 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed a district court ruling that a work created with artificial intelligence (AI) using a machine cannot be registered in the name of the machine itself because the Copyright Act requires that a copyright owner be a human being. Thaler v. Perlmutter, No. 23-5233 (D.C. Cir. Mar. 18, 2025).

In fact, the D.C. Circuit made a specific connection to animal law by citing the decision in Naruto v. Slater, 888 F.3d 418 (9th Cir. 2018), in which the Ninth Circuit held that a monkey cannot be an “author” under the Copyright Act. And, like Thaler, animal rights groups have tried to base their arguments on dictionary definitions. Read more on the Animal Law Developments Blog.

March 14, 2025March 15, 2025 by Duane Morris

Trade Secrets Law Is Awkward Fit in AI Prompt-Hacking Lawsuit

Duane Morris partner Agatha Liu is quoted in the Bloomberg Law article, “Trade Secrets Law Is Awkward Fit in AI Prompt-Hacking Lawsuit,” about a medical AI company’s novel trade secrets lawsuit that illustrates the challenges artificial intelligence presents for protecting proprietary information.

Liu said hacking AI to reveal its prompts is “not a good thing, but it’s not terribly illegal.” AI developers most likely will have to stay on top of the best practices to craft their products to save them from themselves she said.

“If you want to reduce risk, you need to up the ante and make your system more resilient and context-aware,” Liu said.

To read the full article, visit the Bloomberg Law website.

March 13, 2025March 13, 2025 by Duane Morris

Generative AI Training Case Flags Competition as Major Factor

Duane Morris attorneys Jennifer Lantz, Jeremy Elman and Max DiBaise authored the Bloomberg Law article, “Generative AI Training Case Flags Competition as Major Factor,” exploring what the Thomson Reuters v. Ross Intelligence decision’s novel application of the “fair use” defense of copyright law means for generative AI training.

Companies must be mindful of the ultimate purpose of new artificial intelligence tools to avoid running into copyright infringement issues during the training process. If widely adopted, the Thomson Reuters v. Ross Intelligence decision suggests “intermediate copying” cases are unlikely to provide a strong defense when the final output of a tool mirrors the products it was trained on. Accordingly, the key question is likely to what extent the AI system is competing with the underlying copyrighted work. The further away the system is, the more likely it is to be protected under the fair-use doctrine. Read the full article on the Bloomberg Law website.

February 12, 2025 by Duane Morris

FDA AI Guidance Marks a New Era for Biotech, Diagnostics and Regulatory Compliance

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recent release of two draft guidance documents on the use of artificial intelligence in drug development, biologics and medical devices has sparked both excitement and skepticism. As AI increasingly permeates these fields, the regulatory landscape is just beginning to take shape—and these proposed guidelines take a step in that direction by raising awareness of important questions about the future of AI innovation in life sciences. For therapeutic, medical device and diagnostics companies—whether already implementing AI or just beginning to explore its potential—the message is clear: The landscape is evolving, and future success will require thoughtful consideration of compliance, patient safety and privacy protection from the earliest stages of AI adoption.

Read the full Alert on the Duane Morris LLP website.

December 13, 2024 by Duane Morris

California Passes Novel Law Governing GenAI in Healthcare

California has passed a new AI law, Assembly Bill No. 3030, which establishes disclaimer requirements for healthcare providers sending unvetted messages to patients generated by artificial intelligence. AB 3030 is effective January 1, 2025. Under the new law, when a covered provider uses AI to generate a patient communication concerning a patient’s clinical information, that communication must include a disclaimer saying that the communication was generated by AI. Read the full Alert on the Duane Morris website.

December 5, 2024December 5, 2024 by Duane Morris

Webinar: Understanding Data Licensing in the World of AI

Duane Morris’ Technology Transactions, Licensing and Commercial Contracts Group presents a webinar, Understanding Data Licensing in the World of AI, to be held on Wednesday, December 18, 2024, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Eastern.

REGISTER

As we head into 2025, more and more of our clients are negotiating data licensing agreements and asking for assistance in understanding a company’s rights regarding data. This webinar will review intellectual property rights with regard to data, the frequent use and terms of creative commons licenses with datasets, and important and commonly negotiated terms in data licensing agreements, with our attorneys providing thoughts on these issues and how they relate to AI. Learn more.

September 27, 2024September 27, 2024 by Duane Morris

FTC Cracks Down on Allegedly Deceptive Artificial Intelligence Schemes

As part of its ongoing enforcement efforts against allegedly deceptive and misleading uses of artificial intelligence, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) disclosed five new enforcement actions on September 25, 2024, against companies across various industries that either allegedly made fraudulent claims about their AI resources or offered AI services that could be used in misleading or deceptive ways. Read the full Alert on the Duane Morris website.

September 23, 2024September 23, 2024 by Duane Morris

AI Art Appeal’s Procedural Flaws Put Broader Ruling in Doubt

Duane Morris partner Agatha Liu is quoted in the Bloomberg Law article, “AI Art Appeal’s Procedural Flaws Put Broader Ruling in Doubt.”

An appeals court panel’s focus on procedural issues in a case involving efforts to copyright AI-generated work left attorneys concerned the judges may sidestep larger questions about how copyright law regards the emerging technology. […]

“The point of copyright protection is it should reward creativity. It should be associated with a human being, not a machine,” said Liu. “But there’s merit in claiming the creator of the machine being an author.”

Read the full article on the Bloomberg Law website.

September 18, 2024September 18, 2024 by Duane Morris

The AI Update | September 18, 2024

#HelloWorld. It’s been a long summer hiatus. Please bear with us as we play our way back into shape. In this issue, we recap the summer highlights of AI legal and regulatory developments. Of course, the EU AI Act, but not just the EU AI Act. California continues to enact headline-grabbing AI legislation, content owners continue to ink deals with AI model developers, and what would a month in the federal courts be without another AI lawsuit or two. Let’s stay smart together. (Subscribe to the mailing list to receive future issues.)

August 29, 2024August 29, 2024 by Duane Morris

Illinois Employment Legislation Regulates Employer Use of AI

In the span of 10 days in August 2024, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law a series of significant employment legislation, paving the way for a new employment landscape beginning in 2025 and 2026. The new legislation includes adding new requirements for employers utilizing artificial intelligence in their decision-making processes, and imposing liability under the Illinois Human Rights Act if those AI systems create a discriminatory effect.

Read the full Alert on the Duane Morris website.