In an article for LegalTech News, Sidley lawyers Russell G. Weiss, Nicolette Gelnak, and Patrick Donaldson examine the intellectual property (IP) risks that arise when companies use generative AI to develop software, including limits on copyright and patent protection for AI-generated code, the potential loss of trade secret protection when proprietary information is entered into public AI platforms, and exposure to infringement claims tied to how AI platforms are trained.
The authors outline best practices for managing those risks, including preserving meaningful human contributions to code, architecture, and design; documenting how humans and AI each participated in development; adopting a layered copyright registration strategy; using enterprise AI platforms with appropriate contractual protections; and addressing risk allocation in software license and development agreements.
