On September 25 and 26, the Faculty of Law and Economics at the University of Salzburg hosted the second International Intellectual Property Conference entitled “Emerging Issues in Intellectual Property Law.” Researchers, practitioners, and students from around the world spent two days discussing current developments and challenges in the field of intellectual property – from the legal classification of artificial intelligence to novel forms of trademarks like faces as figurative trademarks. A highlight of the event was the keynote speech by Prof. Josef Drexl, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition. Drexl addressed regulatory issues related to artificial intelligence and the currently limited possibilities of competition law. He described AI innovation competition as a discovery procedure in which many factors are still unclear, for example whether an open or closed approach to AI better promotes innovation and benefits consumers.
The conference, organized by Prof. Patrick Warto and Prof. Gudrun Zagl from the University of Salzburg in cooperation with McGeorge School of Law (Sacramento USA) and the Vellore Institute of Technology (Chennai, India) was characterized by its international diversity: speakers from (among others) China, India, South Africa, Malawi, Saudi Arabia, and the US presented their research findings and offered insights into the respective national legal situations. This global composition underscored the relevance of joint legal responses to new phenomena and questions, like: Who is the creator of a work generated by a machine? Who owns training data, and what responsibility do developers bear?
The discussions made clear that legal issues surrounding AI, innovation, and intellectual property will continue to occupy researchers and practitioners for a long time to come.
