In our present digital age the issue of intellectual property (IP) protection is a great issue for creators, businesses, and governments. As we see large scales of content which goes from art and music to software and brand assets going online the risk of infringement and also of unauthorized use is at an all-time high. Also emerging is the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the detection, monitoring, and protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) in the digital space.
Automated Detection of Infringement
One of the issues AI is at the forefront of in terms of protection of intellectual property is through the use of automated content recognition systems. We see that machine learning algorithms which which are put in play to identify similarities between protected content and what is put out there in the digital space. For example AI AI-powered image recognition tools can scan through millions of online platforms to report on the use of copyrighted images or logos without permission. Also we see in the case of music recognition algorithms which are able to recognize unlicensed audio tracks that may have had their pitch or tempo changed which is a common method used to go under the radar of the detection.
Natural Language Processing (NLP), a part of AI, is also involved in the detection of plagiarism in text-based content. We see this in blog posts as well as academic research where NLP tools study writing patterns and put forward which may be duplicate or very similar in nature in real time. These systems which also include the automatic generation of takedown notices or alerts for in depth investigation.
Monitoring and Enforcement at Scale
Manual tracking of intellectual property across the vast growing web is almost out of question. AI brings in scale. It is constantly at work on websites, marketplaces, social media platforms and peer to peer networks to report on cases of counterfeiting or copyright infringement. This real time watch out reduces the response time for enforcement and also greatly improves the chance of getting to violations early.
For companies which is what this is about we see better brand protection and reduced losses from counterfeits, pirated content, or imitation services. AI also may look at metadata, digital watermarks, and blockchain records for verification of authenticity and tracking the origin of digital assets.
Predictive Analytics and Risk Assessment
Another in which AI is used in IP protection is through predictive analytics. Which is to say that by looking at past trends of infringement we have AI which identifies what we may term high risk areas or bad actors which in the end are going to break IP rules. This fore sight in turn enables companies to take a pro active approach in protecting their assets and to put their monitoring resources into the areas which have a greater chance of infringement.
Also AI tools may look at the issue of patent or trademark strength which in turn may report on how unique it is and also the patent’s chance for success in registration or enforcement. This will in turn guide companies in the improvement of their IP strategies and also in to the reduction of legal risks.
Challenges and Ethical Considerations
Despite the fact that there are many benefits to it, the use of AI in IP protection also has issues. We see false positives which is where content is put forward as a match when in fact it isn’t and this leads to unnecessary takedowns or disputes. Also there is issue of privacy related to the scale of monitoring done by AI systems. To that end it is very important to have human input and transparency in what the AI is doing.
