14
May
2024
Pioneering the future: the European Union’s regulatory framework for Artificial Intelligence
As early as October 20201, the European Council set forth an ambitious objective for the EU to become a “leading global player in the development of safe, reliable, and ethical artificial intelligence”.
On April 21, 2021, the European Commission unveiled its draft regulatory, the AI Act, establishing a set of harmonized rules on AI which was adopted by the European Council at the end of 2022.
Following the legislative journey, a provisional agreement was reached between the European Parliament and the Council on December 9, 2023, culminating in three days of intense negotiations.
This legislation was ultimately embraced on Wednesday, March 13, 2024, by a sweeping majority of the European deputies.
But what are the key contributions of this text?
Balancing technology neutrality with asymmetric regulation
The AI Act puts forward a broad definition to encompass all AI systems, aiming to prevent becoming outdated amid technological progress. It defines AI as “software that is developed with one or more of the techniques and approaches listed in Annex I and can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, generate outputs such as content, predictions, recommendations, or decisions influencing the environments they interact with.2”
While the text aims to be applicable to a broad spectrum of AI systems, it introduces an asymmetric field of application, moderating its claimed technological neutrality.
The legislation adopts a risk-based approach: risks are classified into three levels, from unacceptable to minimal, each associated with a specific legal regime.
Low-risk AI systems are only subject to light regulation3, while “high-risk” AI applications and systems categorized as presenting “unacceptable risks” are more heavily impacted.
High-risk AI systems under regulation
High-risk AI systems are those posing significant risks to health, safety, or fundamental rights of individuals. The AI Act dedicates its Title III to these systems.
Initially, high-risk AI is defined as systems designed to be used as a safety component or constituting such a product, subject to an ex-ante conformity assessment by a third party.
Additionally, Annex III lists limited high-risk AI systems, which the European Commission can update to stay abreast of technological advancements4.
These AI systems are, in principle, permitted in the European market, provided they comply with regulations set out in Chapter 2 of Title III. These requirements cover various aspects such as risk management systems, data governance, documentation and record-keeping, transparency, user information, human oversight, robustness, and (cyber)security of systems.
These obligations are primarily directed at AI system providers. However, users, manufacturers, or other parties are also subject to obligations outlined in Title III.
Unacceptable risk AIs are (in principle) prohibited.
Title II lists prohibited practices concerning AI systems whose use is deemed unacceptable because they contravene the Union’s values, especially due to potential violations of fundamental rights.
For example, prohibited are5:
• ” the placing on the market, putting into service or use of an AI system that deploys subliminal techniques beyond a person’s consciousness in order to materially distort a person’s behaviour in a manner that causes or is likely to cause that person or another person physical or psychological harm; (…).”
• “the placing on the market, putting into service or use of AI systems by public authorities or on their behalf for the evaluation or classification of the trustworthiness of natural persons over a certain period of time based on their social behaviour or known or predicted personal or personality characteristics, with the social score leading to either or both of the following(…).”
An exception exists for real-time remote biometric identification systems in publicly accessible spaces, listed among prohibited practices, which can be authorized for law enforcement purposes, subject to necessity and proportionality conditions.
AI systems with specific manipulation risks are governed by a special regulatory framework
This specific regime applies to certain AI systems, particularly those intended to interact with natural persons or to generate content. This regime applies beyond the risk classification, meaning even low-risk AI systems may be subject to this transparency regime.
These systems will be subject to specific transparency obligations6.
For instance, additional obligations include informing individuals that they are interacting with an AI system or exposed to an emotion recognition system. The regulation also addresses “deep fakes7“, where it is mandatory, except for exceptions, to disclose that content is generated by automated means.
Conclusion
The AI Act is a comprehensive text attempting to regulate artificial intelligence systems, aiming to mitigate the associated risks and foster a trustworthy technology ecosystem.
It’s crucial to highlight that the intent is not to impose heavy regulations on businesses or individuals initiating AI systems. Rather, the goal is to limit the requirements to “the minimum necessary” to address AI risks without unduly restricting technological development or disproportionately increasing the cost of bringing AI solutions to market8.
This rationale is why the text reduces regulatory burdens on SMEs and startups and establishes regulatory sandboxes providing a controlled environment to facilitate the development, testing, and validation of AI systems9.
Now awaiting formal adoption by the Council! The legislation will come into effect 20 days after its publication in the Official Journal and will be fully applicable 24 months later, with some provisions coming into force sooner or later.
Let’s not forget, AI is rapidly evolving and is still in its infancy! Daily applications are as plentiful as the potential risks they may pose. In this context, the EU innovates by seeking to mitigate these risks without hindering the development of artificial intelligence.
The TAoMA Team remains at your disposal for any inquiries on this subject!
Juliette Danjean
Trainee lawyer
Jean-Charles Nicollet
European Trademark & Design Attorney – Partner
(1) Extraordinary meeting of the European Council on the 1st and 2nd of October, 2020.
(2) See article 5, Title II of the Regulation’s latest iteration.
(3) See Title IX’s singular article that encourages AI system providers to maintain codes of conduct. This initiative seeks to inspire providers of AI systems, which are not deemed high-risk, to voluntarily adopt standards designated for high-risk systems as outlined in Title III.
(4) The text currently lists specific high-risk AI systems, such as those used for biometric identification and the classification of individuals, along with systems managing critical infrastructure operations (including traffic, water, gas, heating, and electricity supply).
(5) See article 5, Title II of the Regulation’s latest iteration.
(6) See Title IV of the Regulation’s latest version.
(7) The European Parliament defines “deep fakes” as the result of AI-driven media manipulation, described as hyper realistic alterations to reality. (Accessible at: https://multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/fr/audio/deepfake-it_EPBL2102202201_EN)
(8) Recitals of the European Commission’s Proposed Regulation (1; 1.1)
(9) See Title V of the Regulation’s latest version.
05
August
2020
BREXIT and European intellectual property rights: United Kingdom is in transition until December 31, 2020, but what’s next?
The United Kingdom left the European Union on January 31, 2020. However, from an intellectual property point of view, the United Kingdom is still part of the European Union since a transition period has been put in place until December 31, 2020.
The TAoMA News team closely follows these changes and explains the impact of Brexit on your rights.
TRADEMARKS
First of all, if you were wondering whether your European Union trademarks are still valid in the United Kingdom, the answer is YES but only until December 31, 2020!
We explain hereafter the situation of European Union trademarks according to different scenarios.
1st situation: European Union trademarks registered until January 1st, 2021
No change to be expected until December 31, 2020, for:
The registered European Union trademarks;
The European Union trademarks currently under pending registration and the trademarks filed by the end of the transition period and which will be registered by December 31, 2020;
The European Union trademarks expiring before December 31, 2020, and duly renewed before that date (or within the grace period).
For all these trademarks, the UK Office will automatically create equivalent national trademarks on its register. These British equivalencies will be completely independent from the initial EU trademarks but will retain the corresponding filing and priority dates.
The good news is that no action and no cost should be incurred by trademarks owners.
The owners will not be notified by the UK Office and will not receive new registration certificate of their equivalence, but they will be able to access the details of their new trademarks on the UK Office website indicating the EU trademark number, preceded by the reference “UK009”.
Furthermore, these trademarks will have to be renewed before the UK Office when they expire as any national UK trademarks.
If an EU trademark owner does not want to obtain an equivalence, opt-out measures (renunciation to obtain an equivalence) will be possible as of January 1st, 2021, (the corresponding form which will be available on the website gov.uk should not be published before that date).
2nd situation: European Union trademarks in the process of being registered on January 1st, 2021
For the European Union trademarks filed before but not yet registered on January 1st, 2021, applicants will enjoy a period of 9 months (from that date, i.e. until October 1st, 2021) to request the maintenance of their rights in the United Kingdom and have their original European filing date retained.
However, contrary to the registered trademarks, trademarks under pending registration at the end of the period of transition:
Will only be transposed as national trademarks at the request of the owner within 9 months (otherwise, no equivalence will be created);
Will be examined by the UK Office as any new trademark application;
Will be subject to the payment of fees (in the order of £170 for 1 class and £50 for each additional class).
3rd situation: European Union trademarks expiring between January 1st and June 30, 2021
The equivalent trademarks transposed by the UK Office that expire between January 1st and June 30, 2021, will have to be renewed, as will the corresponding European trademark.
The UK Office will send, as far as possible, a reminder to the holder of the expiring equivalent trademark, inviting him to pay a renewal fee.
Given the circumstances, trademark owners will enjoy an additional period of 6 months from the receipt of the reminder from the UK Office to renew their trademarks in the United Kingdom (without surcharge).
Finally, the UK Office already specified that the early renewal of the European trademarks with the EUIPO before December 31, 2020, will not affect the equivalent British trademarks and will not exempt the owners from payment of the British renewal fees.
4th situation: International trademarks designating the European Union
Equivalent measures should be provided for international trademarks designating the European Union.
However, a particularity is to be expected since the British equivalence will be independent of the international trademark. The WIPO will soon provide us with details on the measures planned for these trademarks and the possible actions required by the owners concerned.
5th situation: What about the use and reputation of the European Union trademarks?
Finally, we close this paragraph on trademarks by specifying that the use and the reputation of the trademarks in the European Union, even outside the United Kingdom, in the 5 years preceding the end of the transition period, i.e. December 31, 2020, may be validly invoked in the United Kingdom.
DESIGNS
The same measures will be transposed to the designs, including unregistered Community designs for which a specific register will be created by the UK Office.
This measure is reassuring for the owners of such rights since, unlike conventional registered designs, an unregistered Community design confers a (more limited) protection for a non-renewable period of 3 years from the date of its first publication to the public on the territory of the European Union.
OTHER CONSEQUENCES
However, the Brexit could have a significant impact on contracts (coexistence agreements, engagement letters, licenses), on pending legal actions in United Kingdom as on the the date of January 1st 2021 based on an EU trademark or design, on opposition proceedings before the EUIPO on the basis of UK trademarks, or for .eu domain names registered on behalf of British owners, etc.
Consequently, we recommend you proceed with audits of your current portfolios, contracts and procedures in order to anticipate at best as possible the consequences of the effective exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union.
The entire TAoMA team is mobilized on these issues and remains at your disposal to support you during this transition period.
Marion Mercadier
Juriste
Laura Fretaud
Stagiaire juriste
27
March
2019
Article 13: should you worry?
Author:
teamtaomanews
The copyright directive, proposed by the European Commission on September 14, 2016, was just approved in a modified and final version, on March 26, 2019, by the European Parliament. We would like to review all the fears aroused by its “article 13” – now article 17 – as of the issuance of the proposal more than two years and a half ago.
Like any directive, this text will have to be transposed into national law by each of the 28 (or 27?) EU Member States and will not be applicable as such (as opposed to the regulations, such as the GDPR that did not have to be transposed). The directive only lists goals to be reached and lets the Member States decide of the ways to reach them (for example, with an obligation or not to use automatic filtering system).
This directive, all along the negotiations process, raised many concerns and we wished to make things clear about each of the fears and questions that invaded the web, in particular about its “article 13” that became article 17 in the final version but that will forever stay “Article 13”…
What’s that Article 13?
Article 13 consists in:
Ending the ISP’s protection status (“safe harbor”) of host provider extended by the case law to the platforms: the host providers’ liability was shielded in case of prompt withdrawal of litigious content, and replacing it by an a prioriliability;
Paying the authors through license agreements that are not mandatory for their beneficiaries (point 1 of the article);
When the beneficiaries do not want to enter into a global license agreement, compelling the platforms to cooperate and thus to withdraw the litigious content (point 4);
When no authorization was granted by the beneficiaries, making the host providers liable for the litigious content unless they show that they did everything to obtain the authorization; made their best efforts to make the copyrighted content unavailable; promptly withdrew or deny access to the content, after receiving a notification from the beneficiaries. Principle of proportionality will determine whether the host providers complied with their duty to cooperate namely in view of the number of visitors, the size of the platform, the type of uploaded material, the efficiency of the means and their cost for the host provider;
Allowing the users to appeal the withdrawal of their content through a system of internal board of appeals (point 8);
Compelling the platforms to install automatic filtering systems, except for platforms of less than 3 years making an annual turnover of less than 10 million euros. When these platforms gather over 5 million users, they also have to show that they made their best efforts to prevent the uploading of copyrighted contents for which the authors had made specific requests (point 4aa).
Is it going to make SMEs’ life more complex, as GDPR did?
The European Parliament reduced the SMEs’ burden that the Commission initially put on their shoulders. They will not have to install systems of automatic filtering even when license agreements are negotiated with the beneficiaries (point 7). However, the smallest platforms will have no choice but to accept signing such license agreements.
Will I be taking risks when showing trademarks in my videos?
No, nothing changes in terms of trademarks. The directive only affects copyright, not trademark law. It does not change anything to the fact that it is already possible, without being held liable, to show, voluntarily or not, an item bearing a protected trademark in the uploaded content. It is for example the case of this famous spirit trademark in a video of Liza Koshy. This trademark is not used “in the course of trade”: using it is not infringing the attached rights.
What about copyrighted works? Is it going to be forbidden to show them, even on a corner of the screen and for less than one second?
Even though the European Commission had not drafted it in its proposal, the European Parliament added to the adopted version of the directive that copyright exceptions would prevent the directive from applying. Consequently, it will still be possible, as it is now, to:
Reproduce a short extract of a copyrighted work to illustrate a general speech (quoting a sentence from a novel, showing the excerpt of a theater show, using a few seconds from a song…) as done for example by youtuber Mark Edward Fischbach in this video showing a few seconds of The Simpsons;
Include a protected work as part of a larger whole such as the Louvre Pyramid by Ieoh Ming Pei (an architectural work still under protection) in a video about Paris or a Walt Disney character on the wall of a youtuber’s bedroom, as long as these works are not the principal object of the video (exception of “accidental inclusion” or of “panorama”);
Parodying a work to make fun of it, use it to make fun of something else or produce a humoristic content, as does this video using an excerpt from the movie “Downfall” combined with a speech of Barack Obama before the Congress;
And of course, it will still be possible to use freely works belonging to the public domain.
These exceptions depend on national legislations and might defer from one Member State to another.
I heard that article 13 means the return of censorship…
As long as copyright exceptions are preserved, the directive will never have the effect to “censor” the uploaders. Monitoring systems of copyrighted works might become more efficient and give rise to more automatic withdrawals. But these withdrawals will be justified by copyright infringements. Copyright is, surely, a limitation to freedom of speech as it allows to forbid the uploading of a copyrighted movie without the authorization of its beneficiaries, for example. But it is not accurate to refer to it with the word “censorship” because this limitation to freedom of speech is based in the law and in fundamental and constitutional rights in all EU Member States, namely by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The word “censorship” implies the idea of an arbitrary interference which makes it inaccurate – unless the fears aroused by “Content ID” proved to be justified, see last question below.
Is it true that the memes will be banned?
The memes are parodical images including potentially copyrighted material, such as this 2016 parody of Game of Thrones relating to the transfer of power from Barack Obama to Donald Trump:
These pictures use a copyrighted work (Game of Thrones) and parody it with the addition of the presidents’ faces. On the face of it, this meme infringes the moral rights of the authors (no mention of the author’s name, unauthorized alteration of the work) as well as their economic rights (unauthorized reproduction of the work, no remuneration of the authors). However, this memeis not an infringement because the copyright exceptions protect it from a request to withdraw: the image is a parody and it is used to make fun of Donald Trump depicted as a terrifying and pitiless ruler.
Memes are not jeopardized by the directive, de jure.
But if the exceptions still apply, is anything going to change?
First, if the copyright exceptions are included in the directive, it means that the host providers will not have the overwhelming task to withdraw all existing content using protected works thanks to these exceptions!
What will change is most of all the way to pay the beneficiaries. They will be paid through license agreements or on a case-by-case basis, by the host provider and by the uploader while, until now, only the latter was paying the authors for the works used in the uploaded content, based on a share of the advertising revenues that the host provider was paying to the uploaders. This is one of the reasons why the host providers were lobbying against article 13.
Then, it is true that the changes might not be visible to all the users. Thus, the host providers already set up, these last years and namely in France, filtering systems to prevent the upload of protected content. For example, through the monitoring of key words but also through robots. They also withdraw the content that is notified as infringing, outside of any license agreement. Finally, they already started creating procedures of appeals against withdrawals. For example, YouTube (property of Google), offers an online procedure of copyright takedown notice, but also a procedure of appeal against the withdrawal. YouTube also set up a form to appeal a “Content ID” claim and even a possibility to appeal the confirmation of withdrawal after the appeal against the Content ID claim (same link). YouTube anticipated the implementation of article 13.
Experienced users might already be circumventing the automatic filtering systems when uploading their content: the battle of technology is not fought by the bulk of the troops of the users, but it is, as always, way ahead of the legal norms.
How does this automatic filtering robot “Content ID” work?
This robot is able to understand that a YouTube user is trying to upload a movie or part of a movie for which its beneficiaries requested the protection. Thus, if a YouTube user tries to upload on his or her channel the last Warner or Universal movie release and that these companies made a Content ID request, the uploading is automatically blocked. The same problem will happen if the uploader only includes an excerpt from the movie in the video.
The problem is the coexistence of this automatic filtering system and the copyright exceptions (parody and citation). Indeed, the beneficiaries have the possibility to set a default authorized duration of excerpts. This is why, precisely, procedures of appeal against Content ID claims were set up. But since these procedures are most of the time in favor of the beneficiaries, the uploader has no other option than referring to judicial courts to obtain a decision in favor of his or her freedom of speech.
It is of course impossible for this robot to monitor all musical and audiovisual copyrighted works (movies, TV shows, video clips, etc.). Thus, the automatic filtering will only apply to a small selection of copyrighted works. The host providers’ major fear is that the automatic filtering could be imposed in the frame of license agreements as a performance obligation and not as a best-efforts obligation: in the first case, they would be liable if the robots do not detect the unauthorized use of a copyrighted work; in the second, they would not be liable if they show that they made their best efforts to enforce the automatic filtering with their technological tools and human means.
Gaëlle Loinger-Benamran
Partner
European Trademark and Design Attorney
and
Jérémie Leroy-Ringuet
Attorney at Law