Dr. Philipp Mels, orka: "The biggest battle in the 21st century will be AI versus Copyright"; Leaders League, June 15, 2026

 Leaders League; Dr. Philipp Mels, orka: "The biggest battle in the 21st century will be AI versus Copyright"

"Dr. Philipp Mels, Managing Partner at orka, comments on the use of AI in the context of intellectual property rights, trade secrets, and data protection.

LEADERS LEAGUE: In addition to the AI Act, which areas of law require particular attention when developing, operating, and using AI?

Philipp Mels: In addition to the AI Act, the most important areas of law regarding the use of AI are clearly intellectual property rights, trade secret protection, and data protection...

Why is the use of trade secrets in AI systems so legally risky?

In practice, the most relevant risk for companies is not so much the violation of third-party trade secrets, but rather the fact that employees may enter trade secrets into the AI system. This can be seen as evidence that the company, as the owner of the trade secret, has failed to take the necessary and appropriate measures to ensure confidentiality. As a result, the company loses the protection afforded to those trade secrets.

How significant is the conflict between AI providers and operators on the one hand, and creators or copyright holders on the other?

You may be surprised by my choice of words. The biggest battle that providers and operators of AI systems must fight in the 21st century is against copyright holders, who understandably want to take action against the infringement of their copyrights."

Privacy By Design Is Important For Every Area Of Your Business; Forbes, April 10, 2018

Heidi Maher, Forbes; Privacy By Design Is Important For Every Area Of Your Business

"The only solution -- the only way to change people’s behavior -- is to embed privacy in the very fabric of the organization. That’s why Privacy by Design, a decades-old application design and development strategy, is now being discussed as a foundational strategy for entire organizations...

Finally, the use of new technologies is evolving so fast it creates significant legal complexity. Who is at fault when an accident involves a self-driving car? Who can access the data collected by a fitness tracker or medical device implant?

While we may not be able to untangle all the legal and regulatory questions yet, we can do a better job of protecting the data. The seven original principles of Privacy by Design -- developed for software engineers by the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, Canada, the Dutch Data Protection Authority, and the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research – suggest the path forward..."