Is the Current IP Framework Still Performing Well in Its Supporting Function of Introducing New Technologies into the Market?

Abstract

The LESI Innovation Trends (LIT) Task Force is a horizontal task force within the structure of LESI Committees. It is responsible for monitoring the factors of change brought by innovation that have a significant impact on the current IP framework, identifying any shortcomings, and proposing corresponding solutions.

In the present information-based economy, new technologies (NT)—for example, artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), “Big Data,” and automatization)—are very quickly starting to change how society as a whole operates, which has many consequences on industry and services themselves.

Although this trend is developing in an accelerated way around the world, in the last few years, there have been voices raised to the fact that the current support given by the IP framework (IP law, practice and procedures) to developers (as the creators and implementers of the innovation), and its users, is insufficient to enable implementing in a sustainable manner the benefits of NTs in society, and, as a consequence, leverage the impacts of “the fourth industrial revolution.”

The objective of this paper is to analyse to what extent the current IP framework is still correctly aiding in bringing the benefits of NT developments to society, and to identify areas where it is lagging and, therefore, where there is room for improvement.

Keywords: LESI innovation trends LIT task force, task force, LIT, new technologies, IP framework