The Future of IP and AI
Four sessions at the INTA Annual Meeting will explore how AI will impact trademark practice, IP offices, the right of publicity, and advertising. James Nurton reports.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is already transforming many aspects of trademark practice and is set to have an impact on many more in the next few years. Four key perspectives on AI will be explored at INTA’s 2025 Annual Meeting.
A session on Saturday, May 17, 2:15 pm–3:15 pm, titled Navigating the Right of Publicity in the Age of AI: Challenges and Opportunities, will examine the intersection of AI and the right of publicity and, more specifically, individuals’ rights to control the commercial use of their identities. On the same day, Harnessing AI: Innovative Strategies and Practical Applications (11:15 am–12:15 pm) will consider how trademark professionals—including in-house counsel and attorneys in private practice—can leverage AI.
On the following day, The Future of IP: Use of AI by IP Offices (Sunday, May 18, 11:45 am–12:30 pm) will look at how IP offices are using AI tools to enhance their services and client support. Finally, a session on AI-Driven Advertising: Copyright Issues in the New Frontier on Tuesday, May 20, 3:45 pm–4:45 pm, will discuss the practical challenges arising from the use of AI in advertising.
The range of sessions on this topic demonstrates the pervasive impact of AI technologies. “AI can be transformative in many different ways,” says Toni Nijm, Co-Founder and CEO, Right Hub (UK), who is taking part in the “Harnessing AI” session. “There’s a lot of things trademark practitioners can use AI for, including search and analytics, brand protection, docketing, document analysis, and translations. We’re seeing lots of innovation in each of these areas,” he explains.
But Mr. Nijm adds that trademark practitioners are divided in their response to AI: some are hoping to ignore it while others are embracing the opportunity to test new tools and build platforms. “There are young attorneys who don’t do anything without AI today,” he says.
The sessions at this year’s Annual Meeting are designed to appeal to both groups, by promoting understanding, building confidence, and dispelling some of the myths about AI.
“It will catch my attention if outside counsel are using AI. It can be more efficient and can keep costs the same or lower. That’s huge for us.”
- David Cho | AT&T (USA)
How AI Impacts IP
Many brands have embraced AI to revolutionize marketing, interaction with consumers, and advertising. For instance, fashion brand H&M recently announced that it would use AI versions of real-life models in its advertising, while a number of Super Bowl commercials this year featured AI-generated content.
These uses of AI raise numerous complex legal questions. One concerns deep fakes or digital replicas—something that many governments are looking to regulate. In February of this year, INTA’s Board of Directors approved a Resolution on deep fakes, which sets forth legislative guidelines to address the harms from deep fakes that affect individual human beings, as well as consumers and brand owners more broadly.
In a recent interview with the INTA Bulletin, Fernanda Magalhães, of Kasznar Leonardos Intellectual Property (Brazil), who is moderating the panel on AI and copyright issues, highlighted some of the questions that arise, such as: who owns AI-created content? Have laws been adapted? And if infringement occurs, what can brands do? “The integration of AI into any creative process—the creation of text, images, videos, or music—will complicate the traditional IP frameworks when it comes to questions of ownership and the protection of the work generated by the AI platform. Brands should be aware of these issues and be very intentional as to how and when they use AI,” she said.
Another challenge presented by deep fakes concerns the right of publicity, and in particular how AI technologies impact individuals’ rights to control the commercial use of their identities. This will be explored further in the “Right of Publicity” session on May 17.
As Andrew Avsec, Partner, Crowell & Moring LLP (USA), a speaker in that session, said in a recent interview with the INTA Bulletin: “Rights of publicity have in the past been tied to personal rights, but with the rise of global celebrities and sponsorship deals, video-sharing technology, and, of course, AI, they are being pushed more to the fore.”
“Many legal advisers have used AI to get a lot closer to the business. This will push them on to the next step towards being legal management consultants.”
- Toni Nijm | Right Hub (UK)
IP Professionals Embracing AI
As brands adopt AI throughout their business, it’s natural that they are also exploring its role in legal and trademark work. David Cho, Assistant Vice President Senior Legal Counsel, AT&T (USA) is taking part in the “Harnessing AI” session during the Annual Meeting. He says that his department has made AI a priority and devoted some of its budget to it.
“Our use of AI is in general more on the practical side. I have colleagues who are using AI for tasks that require a lot of heavy lifting, such as document analysis in discovery, administrative tasks, transactions and licenses, and M&A transactions,” says Mr. Cho. “We also see huge possibilities in clearance searches for common law rights. AI is already being incorporated into search browsers.”
Other areas where in-house counsel can benefit from AI include managing documents and correspondence as well as dealing with large-volume enforcement actions, where letter templates can be reproduced and adapted.
For professionals in private practice, meanwhile, AI can be invaluable in getting a broad sense of an issue, such as the state of the law in different jurisdictions, and for triaging inquiries before doing a deep dive, says Maya Medeiros, Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright (Canada).
“I’ve used AI in reviewing drafts of IP agreements. It’s useful to see what’s acceptable, what’s a good starting point, and to have a checkpoint. You can check market terms against your draft, and it can provide a second or third reference point,” she explains.
Like many law firms, Norton Rose Fulbright advises clients on developing AI policies to minimize risk and has also built customized portals for clients to interact with their IP registrations. “Some clients don’t want us to use any of these tools. Other clients encourage it! For us, AI can be an opportunity to show we’re looking to be efficient and deliver a high-quality work product,” says Ms. Medeiros.
IP offices are also leveraging AI, something that will be discussed in the session on “Future of IP.” The fifth session of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Conversation on IP and Frontier Technologies, in April 2022, focused on frontier technologies in IP administration and registration, and WIPO maintains an index of AI initiatives in IP offices, which provides examples of how more than 25 offices are developing applications for services such as searching, classification, data analysis, helpdesk services, translation, and process automation.
In January of this year, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced an AI Strategy to address the technology’s impact across IP policy, agency operations, and the broader innovation ecosystem.
The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) has developed AI tools in areas such as image searching and its Strategic Plan 2030 has created the EUIPO AI Governance and the role of AI coordinator, reporting directly to the Executive Director. The EUIPO is now developing AI tools to support trademark and design examination and to offer pre-assessment and pre-filing checks to users, among other things.
As AI becomes increasingly integrated into day-to-day work, IP professionals—whatever their role—will need to become familiar with it, consider how they can use AI to enhance productivity, and gain relevant skills. For example, says Mr. Cho, learning how to draft effective prompts for generative AI tools is a new and emerging skill: “We need to be learning how to ask the right questions and how to get the best out of AI. You need to make it a habit: keep asking questions, including the crazy questions.”
“I’ve used AI in reviewing drafts of IP agreements. It’s useful to see what’s acceptable, what’s a good starting point, and to have a checkpoint.”
- Maya Medeiros | Norton Rose Fulbright (Canada)
Clients and Law Firms Working Together
While the potential benefits of AI in trademarks are significant, delivering them will require creativity and cooperation between in-house teams and their outside advisers. “It will catch my attention if outside counsel are using AI. It can be more efficient and can keep costs the same or lower. That’s huge for us,” says Mr. Cho. He describes AI as being “almost like having a junior colleague or apprentice.”
He also believes that competition between outside counsel will create impetus to incorporate AI, saying: “You need to join in or be left behind!” Mr. Nijm agrees: “If you don’t use it, your clients are going to use attorneys who do.”
“We’ve told our preferred outside counsel that we want to be able to data mine work products with generative AI. We’re also working with firms to come up with AI-generated solutions,” says Mr. Cho. He believes that one possible impact of AI is that it will “level the playing field” between large and small firms, as smaller firms will be able to provide competitive services without armies of attorneys and paralegals.
While many law firms are embracing AI, however, they are doing so cautiously. “We have to think about privilege, confidentiality, and accuracy as well as the general ethical and legal risks to be sure we have a competent work product,” says Ms. Medeiros. “I wouldn’t use a technology in an area where I had no foundation myself. How would you validate it?” She says she also draws on her background in computer science, which means she is “naturally cautious” about architecture and security issues relating to AI.
If law firms are to embrace AI, they will have to invest in new technologies and training—either developing tools in-house or buying them from specialist vendors. Mr. Nijm says that being able to use the best new tools will also in some cases require significant software upgrades: “Some firms are using platforms that are 20 or 30 years old.”
He also believes that access to trademark records is crucial for the building of innovative and powerful tools: “We need easier access to trademark data from the trademark offices to democratize the build of future trademark platforms using AI.”
But he adds that the benefits for professionals that get it right—understanding how tools work and thinking creatively about how to build and tailor them—will be extensive. “Many legal advisers have used AI to get a lot closer to the business. This will push them on to the next step towards being legal management consultants,” he says.
Advice for IP Professionals
Asked for one piece of advice for trademark professionals who are curious about AI, Ms. Medeiros says: “Get started. Figure it out. Find one or two tools that work for you and play around with low stakes. That’s how I started.”
Mr. Cho adds that it is important to understand how AI works in practice and to see it in action: “Don’t just give AI a few minutes. Allow time to immerse yourself in it—once a week or once a month. Make it part of your routine.”
Mr. Nijm also encourages professionals to experiment to gain confidence: “Learn how AI works and understand how exponentially better it gets with each release. Get comfortable. Remove fear. Think of it like any other tool. Don’t be afraid!”
