AI Chart contracting dispute-resolution privacy-security risk-mitigation employment intellectual-property

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

In the emerging and uncertain AI era, Duane Morris offers strategic insights and creative legal thinking to empower companies building and using transformative technologies. As AI develops exponentially faster than regulatory frameworks can evolve, Duane Morris also provides guidance on navigating the rapidly changing and expanding nexus of technological, political, legal and ethical issues that AI raises.

Our multidisciplinary AI team draws on deep experience from across the firm's practice areas to help clients maximize the new opportunities and efficiencies that AI promises, while minimizing the newly uncovered risks and challenges that revolutionary technology brings. We focus on our clients' needs in specific and intertwined legal areas, including:

  • Dispute Resolution
  • Contracting
  • Privacy and Security
  • Intellectual Property
  • Employment
  • Risk Mitigation

Contracting

Duane Morris attorneys share the passion and entrepreneurial spirit of our start-up and emerging business clients, as well as the concerns of our established clients that are now addressing AI and other emerging technologies. With the rapid technological advances generative AI brings, reviewing and preparing technology agreements has become a critical part of business operations. Duane Morris is well-versed in all aspects of the technology contracting process, including solution development, software licensing, cloud computing agreements, IT services contracts, and hardware purchase and maintenance agreements. For generative AI applications, we focus on data licensing, data usage and terms of use agreements. In reviewing and negotiating contracts for our clients, our goal is to protect your interests while mitigating risks associated with intellectual property and data security and privacy. We also address and resolve complex issues with third-party rights, usage restrictions and termination clauses.

Privacy and Security

The AI development lifecycle requires vast amounts of data, and can often include personal information about consumers and employees. As AI technologies emerge and gain widespread adoption, businesses must address the corresponding rise in data privacy and security concerns. Duane Morris attorneys regularly assist clients with practical strategies to minimize privacy and security risks and have extensive experience with managing:

  • Privacy risks inherent in AI training, development and licensing
  • Automated decision-making risks and compliance requirements
  • Data minimization and security risks
  • Privacy risks and regulatory requirements for employers using AI in recruiting
  • Ethical considerations in training and using AI models

Intellectual Property

Duane Morris lawyers adeptly handle the gamut of complex intellectual property challenges associated with AI and AI-related technologies, including natural language processing, deep learning, AI hardware and others. Our lawyers offer a comprehensive range of IP services for protecting and optimizing the value of AI-related innovations globally.

Copyrights

  • Advise on the propriety of using works and data in the training, benchmarking, and fine-tuning of models, including fair-use and derivative-works analysis.
  • Assess potential infringement liability and guidance on safeguarding ownership in an uncertain registration and regulatory environment

Trademarks

  • Advise on trademark issues in connection with brand confusion from AI output
  • Manage trademark issues stemming from platform terms of service and website scraping

Patents

  • Secure protection for novel AI software and hardware and for additional other technologies to mitigate AI risks
  • Evaluate inventorship and usage of AI technology in assessing responsibility and liability

Trade Secrets

  • Assess needs for maintaining AI technologies as trade secrets
  • Develop strategies to safeguard proprietary AI technologies and sensitive information through trade secret policies and agreements

Licensing

  • Review and optimize open-source and other license agreements implicated by generative AI
  • Structure licensing agreements to facilitate the commercialization and use of AI technologies, while protecting the rights of the technology owner

IP Litigation

  • Represent clients in all types of intellectual property disputes involving AI, such as patent infringement, copyright violations, trade secret misappropriation and trademark disputes

Employment

As businesses increasingly use AI when making hiring decisions, regulatory priorities have shifted to identify, prevent and address discriminatory practices and coded biases in these new AI-based employment processes. Duane Morris employment attorneys understand both the technological and legal issues present and offer practical strategies to help companies maximize the benefits of AI while minimizing the compliance risks. Our services include:

  • Crafting legally compliant AI policies for employers and employees
  • Designing and implementing auditing tools to ensure AI hiring decisions are fair and do not disproportionately reject applicants from protected classes
  • Representing companies facing government investigations or class action lawsuits involving AI-based hiring discrimination claims

Risk Mitigation

AI promises new business horizons and opportunities, all with the risks inherent in new, potentially revolutionary technology. Duane Morris develops AI risk mitigation strategies based on our extensive industry experience and deep technological understanding. We design and manage AI governance frameworks, oversight strategies, AI policies and work with client’s AI committee to ensure that clients keep pace with rapidly changing industry developments while mitigating regulatory, data privacy, trade secret and intellectual property risks around the globe. Whether your business is integrating new AI tools into business workflows, designing and training new machine learning models and algorithms, or addressing the risks associated with service provider and other uses of AI, we can help institute polices, standards and controls designed to maintain institutional control while your teams progress at the speed of business.

Dispute Resolution

As AI disrupts business practices, it also serves as a new cause of business disputes. Resolving disputes in the age of AI requires rethinking concepts and adapting to new tools and processes. Well before the advent of ChatGPT, Duane Morris has been helping clients prevent and resolve disputes and litigation involving machine learning, emerging technologies and software. Our attorneys:

  • Advise clients on the enforcement of AI-related click-wrap, browse-wrap and sign-in wrap online terms
  • Enforce or defend rights being usurped by new AI technology and its output in court and ADR forums

For More Information

For more information, please contact Sandra A. Jeskie, John M. Benjamin, Matthew S. Yungwirth or any of the group members referenced in the Attorney Listing.