Tech & Sourcing @ Morgan Lewis

On Monday 21 September, the UK High Court (Patents) delivered its judgment on the DABUS appeal, as previously reported here by Morgan Lewis.

On 7 September 2020, the UK government published a call for views on the future relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and intellectual property (IP). Though the government called for views on all areas of intellectual property law, this article shall focus on patent law.

Bias issues in AI decisionmaking have become increasingly problematic in recent years, as many companies increase the use of AI systems across their operations. On one hand, AI can help reduce the impact of human biases in decisionmaking. On the other, AI can make the bias problem worse.

In response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, technology companies and public health authorities around the world have been developing contact tracing apps as a way to track and thus slow the spread of the virus. Implementation of those apps, however, can raise privacy and cybersecurity considerations.

The California state attorney general issued a press release on August 14 stating that the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) has approved the California Department of Justice’s regulations regarding the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and filed them with the California secretary of state, making the regulations effective immediately.

As companies adjusted to the “new normal” of coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions, spending on cloud services has seen a boom. Spending by companies on cloud services exploded in the second quarter to a record $34.6 billion, up approximately 11% from the first quarter of 2020 and 30% from the same period last year, according to research firm Canalys, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

A recent Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruling—Schrems II—could lead to significant changes for companies that rely on the EU-US Privacy Shield for transferring personal data from the European Economic Area (EEA) to the United States, including increased due diligence on the part of data exporters.

With the world in various states of lockdown, your organization’s online presence is more important than ever…even more so with official enforcement of CCPA beginning last month. It may be a good time to spend an afternoon reviewing and updating the legal boilerplate on your organization’s website. Here is what we recommend for a basic three-part review to get you started:

Companies developing digital therapeutics, clinical decision support apps, and other digital health technologies for use in the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic should be mindful of FDA’s quickly evolving policies and guidance affecting such technologies. In our recent LawFlash, FDA Regulation of COVID-19 Apps, Digital Therapeutics, and other Digital Health Technologies, we examine recent FDA developments and their implications for companies in the digital health space.

Adding corporate flexibility to IT-related commercial contracts can make seemingly unrelated mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions a bit less complex. Although many contracting parties already consider assignment rights and restrictions in relation to certain successor scenarios, the divestiture scenario—where contractual rights are not simply transferred in whole—deserves a closer look.