• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Montreal AI Ethics Institute

Montreal AI Ethics Institute

Democratizing AI ethics literacy

  • Articles
    • Public Policy
    • Privacy & Security
    • Human Rights
      • Ethics
      • JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion
    • Climate
    • Design
      • Emerging Technology
    • Application & Adoption
      • Health
      • Education
      • Government
        • Military
        • Public Works
      • Labour
    • Arts & Culture
      • Film & TV
      • Music
      • Pop Culture
      • Digital Art
  • Columns
    • AI Policy Corner
    • Recess
  • The AI Ethics Brief
  • AI Literacy
    • Research Summaries
    • AI Ethics Living Dictionary
    • Learning Community
  • The State of AI Ethics Report
    • Volume 7 (November 2025)
    • Volume 6 (February 2022)
    • Volume 5 (July 2021)
    • Volume 4 (April 2021)
    • Volume 3 (Jan 2021)
    • Volume 2 (Oct 2020)
    • Volume 1 (June 2020)
  • About
    • Our Contributions Policy
    • Our Open Access Policy
    • Contact
    • Donate

Submission to World Intellectual Property Organization on IP & AI

August 6, 2020

Full paper in PDF formDownload

Based on insights from the Montreal AI Ethics Institute (MAIEI) staff and supplemented by workshop contributions from the AI Ethics community convened by MAIEI on July 5, 2020.

Intro

This document posits that, at best, a tenuous case can be made for providing AI exclusive IP over their “inventions”. Furthermore, IP protections for AI are unlikely to confer the benefit of  ensuring regulatory compliance. Rather, IP protections for AI “inventors” present a host of negative externalities and obscures the fact that the genuine inventor, deserving of IP, is the human agent. This document will conclude by recommending strategies for WIPO to bring IP law into the 21st century, enabling it to productively account for AI “inventions”.

Full paper in PDF formDownload
Want quick summaries of the latest research & reporting in AI ethics delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the AI Ethics Brief. We publish bi-weekly.

Primary Sidebar

🔍 SEARCH

Spotlight

ALL IN Conference 2025: Four Key Takeaways from Montreal

Beyond Dependency: The Hidden Risk of Social Comparison in Chatbot Companionship

AI Policy Corner: Restriction vs. Regulation: Comparing State Approaches to AI Mental Health Legislation

Beyond Consultation: Building Inclusive AI Governance for Canada’s Democratic Future

AI Policy Corner: U.S. Executive Order on Advancing AI Education for American Youth

related posts

  • Unstable Diffusion: Ethical challenges and some ways forward

    Unstable Diffusion: Ethical challenges and some ways forward

  • The Robot Made Me Do It: Human–Robot Interaction and Risk-Taking Behavior (Research Summary)

    The Robot Made Me Do It: Human–Robot Interaction and Risk-Taking Behavior (Research Summary)

  • Promises and Challenges of Causality for Ethical Machine Learning

    Promises and Challenges of Causality for Ethical Machine Learning

  • Confidence-Building Measures for Artificial Intelligence

    Confidence-Building Measures for Artificial Intelligence

  • How Different Groups Prioritize Ethical Values for Responsible AI

    How Different Groups Prioritize Ethical Values for Responsible AI

  • Risky Analysis: Assessing and Improving AI Governance Tools

    Risky Analysis: Assessing and Improving AI Governance Tools

  • Reports on Communication Surveillance in Botswana, Malawi and the DRC, and the Chinese Digital Infra...

    Reports on Communication Surveillance in Botswana, Malawi and the DRC, and the Chinese Digital Infra...

  • On the Challenges of Using Black-Box APIs for Toxicity Evaluation in Research

    On the Challenges of Using Black-Box APIs for Toxicity Evaluation in Research

  • Measuring Value Understanding in Language Models through Discriminator-Critique Gap

    Measuring Value Understanding in Language Models through Discriminator-Critique Gap

  • Research Summary: Countering Information Influence Activities: The State of the Art

    Research Summary: Countering Information Influence Activities: The State of the Art

Partners

  •  
    U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute Consortium (AISIC) at NIST

  • Partnership on AI

  • The LF AI & Data Foundation

  • The AI Alliance

Footer


Articles

Columns

AI Literacy

The State of AI Ethics Report


 

About Us


Founded in 2018, the Montreal AI Ethics Institute (MAIEI) is an international non-profit organization equipping citizens concerned about artificial intelligence and its impact on society to take action.

Contact

Donate


  • © 2025 MONTREAL AI ETHICS INSTITUTE.
  • This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
  • Learn more about our open access policy here.
  • Creative Commons License

    Save hours of work and stay on top of Responsible AI research and reporting with our bi-weekly email newsletter.