Chanley Howell on AI IP Protection in Litigation – 'Judges are human'

Foley & Lardner LLP partner Chanley Howell shared insight on protecting the intellectual property behind emerging technologies like artificial intelligence in the Bloomberg Law article, “AI Put on Trial in ‘Life or Death’ Police Tech Clashes.”

Howell, an intellectual property lawyer with Foley whose practice covers a broad range of technology law matters, said that litigating the sensitivity of the information a business wants protected can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“Even with court orders we all know that leaks happen, and if our crown jewels leak we suffer extreme harm,” he commented.

Assessing the prospects of judges siding with plaintiffs on access to the inner mechanisms of a company’s AI, Howell said, “Judges are human. So unless you get a judge that’s very AI savvy, they could be sympathetic to a plaintiff saying they need to see what’s in the black box.”