Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property Rights: A Law and Economics Analysis of AI-Generated Inventions

Abstract

The development of advanced artificial intelligence technologies, which can produce innovative inventions and creative compositions independently, is a major threat to the systems of intellectual property globally. The paper explores the legal and economic conflicts that emerge due to the invention of AIs based on patent and copyright laws in the United States, the European Union, and by the TRIPS Agreement. One of the ways that we examine through the lens of law and economics is how the existing IP regimes based on the principle of human inventorship and authorship are insufficient to consider human creativity in the area of non- human creativity. Determining the economic efficiency of the offered solutions is evaluated based on the recognition of AI as an inventor, or the right attributions of the developer, owners, or users, in terms of the promotion of incentives to innovate and market efficiency as well as social welfare. We also discuss the dangers of the interventions of the over-protection and under-protection of AI-generated IP, such as monopolization and decreased competition. Lastly, we suggest policy and legal options to reform to develop economically effective and legally consistent IP framework of the age of AI-driven innovation.