In changing or revolutionizing the ways of approaching the creation, search and infringement detection of trademark, there is hand of one upcoming replacement or substitution of everything, even humans and that is Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI is smoothing the trademark registration, overall process and increasing the efficiency, consistency of trademark laws through its ability to analyze and identify the large amounts of data and patterns. However along with this benefits or positive impacts of AI, AI brings some legal and ethical questions which are required to be addressed wisely.
ROLE OF AI IN TRADEMARK CREATION
AI is playing very significant role in trademark creation as it can produce the distinct and unique trademarks based on its ability, but the question that arises is trademark law would grant the protection to AI-Generated trademarks or not. The AI-generated trademark is currently a very complex issue as the court and legislative bodies want to or are preferring the Human generated trademark, and struggling to define the human role in the same. Internationally, currently, as per the criteria made by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), human involvement in the creation of trademark is required compulsory.
IMPORTANCE OF AI IN TRADEMARK SEARCH
AI plays an important role in trademark search as it founds any discrepancy or any infringement or other potential infringement happening under trademark law and analyze the large databases of trademark. This is proved very helpful for the businessman to protect their intellectual property and to check any infringement of the same worldwide, and can ask for any swift action against the unauthorized use of the trademark. However, to bring the fairness and accuracy in the infringement detection and other processes, there is need to design the AI with the mechanisms.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF AI IN TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT DETECTION
The AI is very beneficial in potential infringement of trademarks on e-commerce platform, social media and websites by any unauthorized user or using by any unauthorized way or method. This important function of AI is very helpful mostly for businesses to quickly respond any potential infringement, unauthorized use and protect their reputation in the market. However, to have solely dependent on AI for the detection might be a mistake or may lead to unfair or disproportionate actions, this highlights the requirement of human oversight and review.
ENSURING AI COMPLIANCE WITH LEGAL STANDARDS
AI are designed in a way that they will work fast mostly than humans, but they are not enough capable to interpret the laws or provisions all the time in a way it is required or in the way the attorneys would. For example, AI might identify the uniqueness but it might have lack of distinctiveness etc. That could lead to rejections or legal challenges or ethical challenges after the application is filed. Businesses are required to be careful while considering AI generated decisions or suggestions to ensure that it complies with legal requirements and rules or it should not create the legal or ethical challenges. It is recommended that business should make partnership with the legal expert to avoid legal or ethical challenges and to ensure proper compliance of provisions while considering AI generated results, decisions, suggestions etc. which would increase the efficiency and effectiveness of AI.
IMPLICATIONS OF AI ON TRADEMARK LAW
There can be many legal and ethical implications of AI on trademark law which brings a question on integration of AI with trademark. Some legal implications which are as follows:
- The first question that the integration of AI brings is about the ownership like who would be consider as an owner of AI generated trademark and about the inventor or author like whether the AI would be considered as author of AI generated trademark or not.
- The second questions that the combination led is about the fairness and accuracy of infringement detection as whether AI is capable to ensure the fairness and accuracy in detecting the potential infringement of trademark.
- The combination of AI with trademark law may led to an issue regarding the liability as who would be liable in case of errors found in AI results or in case of biases found in trademark decisions.
There may be some ethical implications which arises after giving the effect to combination of AI with the trademark law which are as follows: -
- First question that comes in mind as an ethical implication is about the fair compensation as whether the original creators shall be compensated fairly when their work is used to train the AI models.
- Another ethical implication is transparency which also raised from the happening of combination of AI with trademark law. The question that arises is whether the AI involvement in decision making related to trademark law can be made transparent and accountable or not.
- Among some more implications the next complex ethical implication which is require to be addressed is related to biasness and fairness like in which way the AI systems can be designed to avoid biasness and to ensure the fairness in trademark decision making.
Apart from these some legal and ethical implications, the integration of AI with trademark law led many other implications. All the implications including ethical and legal are required to be addressed quickly to make the AI beneficial for trademark.
THE FUTURE OF AI IN TRADEMARK LAW
The future of AI in Trademark law may be good or helpful like in shaping the landscape of trademark law if all the implications like ethical and legal are addressed quickly before time. This may involve revising laws and regulations to reflect AI's role in trademark creation and enforcement, encouraging collaboration between lawmakers, trademark developers and AI regulators and developers to ensure responsible AI use, and bringing some important mechanisms for transparency and accountability in AI decision-making processes.
Therefore, after studying or analyzing the impact of AI on trademark creation, trademark search and trademark infringement, we can tackle the implications and ensure fairness, transparency, and accountability in trademark law.
REFRENCES
- The Rise of AI-Generated Trademarks: Infringement Implications and Future Directions by Ms. Pallabi Gogoi, Sibsagar University, Assam.
- Exploring the impact of artificial intelligence on trade mark and copyright: challenges and opportunities by Vanshika Dabriwal, Amity Law School, Noida.
- India: The Intersection of AI And Trademarks, MONDAQ, by Dahiya Neelam.
- AI is coming and it will change trade mark law by Lee Curtis and Rachel Platts.
- The Impact of AI Technology on the Trademark Field by Yuling WU and Jiaqi TAN.
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