Now more than ever, technology is influencing the way we do business, communicate, move through and around the world, access and manage our homes, receive and administer healthcare, make purchases, secure information, and protect our most valuable property. Morrison Foerster keeps pace with this rapidly evolving landscape across our internationally recognized corporate, finance, intellectual property, and litigation practices. MoFo Tech brings together our insights relating to fields such as blockchain and distributed ledger, cloud and as-a-service technologies, driverless cars, drones, fintech, computer hardware and software, the Internet of Things, semiconductors, and telecommunications. The MoFo Tech blog offers real-time, in-depth analyses of the trends and complex issues shaping the global technology industry.<h2>ABOUT MORRISON FOERSTER</h2>Morrison Foerster is a leading global law firm that transforms complexity into advantage for its clients. Our clients include some of the largest financial institutions, banks, consulting and accounting firms, and Fortune 100, technology, and life sciences companies. Highlighting the firm’s commitment to client service, leadership in market-changing deals and impact litigation, and values-based culture, Morrison Foerster has been repeatedly recognized as one of the top 10 firms on The American Lawyer’s A-List. Year after year, the firm receives significant recognition from Chambers and The Legal 500 across their various guides, including Global, USA, Asia‑Pacific, Europe, UK, Latin America, and FinTech Legal. Our lawyers passionately care about delivering legal excellence while living our values. Morrison Foerster has a long-standing commitment to creating a culture that respects and celebrates differences, while providing an inclusive environment. The firm has achieved Mansfield Certification Plus since 2018 as a result of successfully reaching at least 30 percent women, communities of color, and LGBTQ+ lawyer representation in a notable number of current leadership roles and committees. The firm also has a long history of commitment to the community and society through providing pro bono legal services, including litigating for civil rights and civil liberties, improving public education and fostering the wellbeing of children, advocating for veterans, promoting international human rights, enforcing the right to asylum, and safeguarding the environment.

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Scott Llewellyn’s practice focuses on complex litigation in federal and state courts around the country, with an emphasis on patent and trade secret disputes. Over the past decade, he has worked on some of the most significant, high–profile IP cases involving technology for televisions, smartphones, and self–driving cars, relying on 40 years of experience with computer hardware and software. Scott also has significant experience with business divorce cases before courts and arbitrators, involving a mix of trade secret, patent, tort, and contract claims relating to technology development and implementation.Scott also has successfully tried general commercial arbitration and agency matters, briefed and argued various appeals in federal appellate court, and tried more than 20 cases for the Denver City Attorney’s office, most of them jury trials.Scott also has an active pro bono practice, having worked on a variety of criminal and immigration appeals, and having represented Colorado criminal defense and mental health organizations in high–profile suits against the state of Colorado for violations of the constitutional rights of defendants.At MoFo, Scott serves on the board of the Morrison & Foerster Foundation. In the broader legal community, he serves on the boards of the Colorado Lawyers Committee and Drop in the Bucket (a charity that builds wells and sanitation systems in sub–Saharan Africa).After law school, Scott clerked for the Honorable Clarence A. Brimmer, District of Wyoming, and the Honorable Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain, Ninth Circuit. He was also previously an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center.

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Partner

Scott Llewellyn’s practice involves complex litigation before state and federal courts around the country, with an emphasis on patent and trade secret disputes for high-tech companies, to which he brings more than 35 years of experience with computer hardware and software, in particular relating to the processing and transmission of audio, video, voice, and other types of data. Mr. Llewellyn has also tried commercial arbitration and agency matters; briefed and argued various appeals in federal appellate court; and tried more than 20 cases for the Denver city attorney’s office, most of them jury trials.

Scott F. Llewellyn

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MoFo Tech brings together legal insights and in-depth analyses on trends and complex issues shaping the global technology industry, covering fields such as blockchain and distributed ledger, cloud and SaaS technologies, driverless cars, drones, FinTech, computer hardware and software, the IoT, semiconductors, and telecommunications.

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MoFo Tech brings together legal insights and in-depth analyses on trends and complex issues shaping the global technology industry, covering fields such as blockchain and distributed ledger, cloud and SaaS technologies, driverless cars, drones, FinTech, computer hardware and software, the IoT, semiconductors, and telecommunications.

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Current State of the AI VC Financing Market

MoFo Tech Law Summit – Tech and Antitrust: Policy Shifts in the Second Trump Administration

MoFo Tech Law Summit – Responsible Tech: Policy Becomes Practice

AI Dynamics: Regulatory Landscape and Industry Insights

Introducing the MoFo Tech Law Summit – Innovation Under Regulation

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Suz Mac Cormac, Stephanie Sharron, and Oluwabamise Onabanjo authored an article for the Daily Journal explaining how Responsible AI (artificial intelligence) practices in combination with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) frameworks can be applied both to mitigate risk and support a corporation's ESG goals."AI holds tremendous promise for corporate growth and opportunity," the authors wrote. "However, use of AI can also adversely impact trust, reputation, and overall corporate operations and performance. By implementing Responsible AI practices, corporate performance as measured against ESG criteria can be bolstered. However, if corporations design, develop, and deploy AI solutions without adequate governance and risk mitigation through Responsible AI practices, ESG efforts may very well be undermined. Those corporations that establish corporate policies and a holistic approach to integrating Responsible AI and ESG frameworks will be best positioned to take advantage of the exciting potential of AI."Read the <a href="https://media2.mofo.com/v3/assets/blt5775cc69c999c255/blt23d301e583cdf5d4/64401376ea4ed2292f8d3f79/230411-responsible-ai-company-esg-framework.pdf" target="_blank">full article</a>.

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Susan (Suz) Mac Cormac, San Francisco partner, has extensive experience in corporate law, ESG, social enterprise and impact investing, and venture capital.

Susan H. Mac Cormac

Susan H. Mac Cormac | Corporate + ESG Attorney

Susan (“Suz”) co-chairs the ESG + Sustainability and Social Enterprise + Impact Investing practices. Her work focuses on advising innovative sustainable companies and investors, with particular expertise on ensuring investments have positive impact through use of new corporate forms, hybrids, alternative debt and equity instruments and disclosure.

Susan Mac Cormac

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Stephanie assists companies with technology and life sciences transactions, representing both private and public companies, from emerging growth through the Fortune 50. In particular, Stephanie focuses on helping companies that leverage data through technology in structuring their business and commercial transactions.

Stephanie Sharron

Stephanie Sharron is partner in the Palo Alto office and a member of the firm’s Technology Transactions Group. Clients turn to Ms. Sharron for advice on how to leverage data through technology and the related issues that apply to their business models in light of the rapid changes in business, technology and law.

Stephanie Lynn Sharron

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Responsible AI as Part of a Company's ESG Framework

AI Trends For 2022 - Export Control/CFIUS

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Suz Mac Cormac, Stephanie Sharron, and Oluwabamise Onabanjo authored an article for the Daily Journal explaining how Responsible AI (artificial intelligence) practices in combination with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) frameworks can be applied both to mitigate risk and support a corporation's ESG goals.

Responsible AI as Part of a Company's ESG Framework

<div data-reactroot=""><img src="https://media2.mofo.com/v3/images/blt5775cc69c999c255/blta12a2ea9d108acd3/6424af96ba298210fbb5ff43/230329-disruption-logo.jpg?format=auto&amp;quality=60" alt="Disruption Logo"/></div>On March 24, thought leaders in the technology and entertainment industries gathered in Los Angeles and virtually for Creative Commons’ Disruption Conference. The daylong event, which was sponsored by Morrison Foerster, focused on how the rights of content creators are being transformed as generative AI goes mainstream.Throughout the day, attendees heard from a variety of industry leaders, including Morrison Foerster partner Joseph Gratz, who spoke on copyright issues, and associate Heather Whitney, who participated in a fireside chat with science fiction and fantasy author Ken Liu. One highlight of the event was a keynote speech from Che Chang, OpenAI’s deputy general counsel, who shared his thoughts on the potential economic and societal impacts of generative AI tools. Attendees discussed the fundamental dilemmas of how content creators perceive their relationships with AI and how machine-assisted content can augment creativity.The following are a couple key takeaways from the discussions:<ul><li>Artists’ views on the effects of generative AI tools run the gamut. While there is often a focus on artists’ fear of these tools, many artists (like musician Imogen Heap) use them to enhance their creativity.</li><li>The major copyright questions revolve around three clusters of issues: (1) the use of data to train machine learning models, (2) the generation of outputs that may resemble training data, and (3) the copyrightability of outputs produced by the users of generative AI tools.</li></ul>The Disruption Conference was a valuable opportunity for members of the technology and entertainment industries to come together to learn from and connect with leaders in the field. With the rapid advances of generative AI, our attorneys will continue to monitor AI trends, engage with industry leaders, and actively seek out opportunities for learning and collaboration.

Justin Haan is a partner in the firm’s Technology Transactions Group in the San Francisco office, advising leading technology industry pioneers to help them navigate their most critical IP and technology needs.

Justin H. Haan

Justin Haan is a partner in the firm’s Technology Transactions Group and advises clients on a range of issues in the technology and media industries. He also drafts technology license agreements on behalf of licensors and licensees involving a wide range of technologies, including virtual reality devices, cloud platforms, Internet of Things devices, unmanned aerial vehicles, and artificial intelligence applications. Mr. Haan received his J.D., with a certificate in law and technology, from the University of California, Berkeley.

Justin Haan

Authors Guild v. Google, Inc. 

Hachette et al. v. Internet Archive

International Code Council, Inc. v. UpCodes, Inc. 

Stevens v. CoreLogic, Inc. 

Long v. Facebook

Verifone v. Poynt

Atari v. Redbubble

Does v. OpenAI et al. 

Various Online Platforms

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Clients turn to Joe Gratz to handle trailblazing litigation where copyright and trademark law meet new technologies. An experienced litigator, Joe draws on his strong technical background to distill complex issues into simple, accurate concepts for judges, juries, and clients.

Joseph C. Gratz

Joseph Gratz

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Generative AI and Copyright: Conference Recap

On March 24, thought leaders in the technology and entertainment industries gathered in Los Angeles and virtually for Creative Commons’ Disruption Conference. The daylong event, which was sponsored by Morrison Foerster, focused on how the rights of content creators are being transformed as generative AI goes mainstream.



Generative AI and Copyright: Conference Recap

On March 14, 2023, OpenAI—a MoFo client—released GPT-4, which quickly garnered broad media coverage. For those assessing the opportunities and risks related to GPT-4, it is useful to consider the extent of the stated technical and safety improvements and the limitations of the release.GPT-4 is the newest version of OpenAI’s Generative Pre-trained Transformer model. Like previous versions of GPT, GPT-4 is a transformer-based large language model that is pre-trained using both publicly available data (such as internet data) and third-party licensed data to generate text output based on input prompts. GPT is the foundation model behind ChatGPT (the well-known model based on GPT that OpenAI fine-tuned for a chatbot experience). Read our <a href="https://www.mofo.com/resources/insights/230315-gpt-4-release-deep-dive-briefing-improvements" target="_self">client alert</a>.

GPT-4 Release: Briefing on Model Improvements and Limitations

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Tessa J. Schwartz, partner, has extensive experience in complex intellectual property and technology law, copyright law, and patent litigation.

Tessa Schwartz

Tessa Schwartz has an active practice counseling companies on intellectual property and technology transactions issues, and negotiating complex intellectual property and commercial agreements.

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Associate

David Fang is an associate in the San Francisco office of Morrison & Foerster. He is a member of the firm’s Corporate Department and Artificial Intelligence Group.
David’s practice focuses on technolo

David Fang

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GPT-4 Release: Briefing on Model Improvements and Limitations

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On March 14, 2023, OpenAI—a MoFo client—released GPT-4, which quickly garnered broad media coverage. For those assessing the opportunities and risks related to GPT-4

The U.S. Copyright Office has denied an attempt to register copyright in images created using the Midjourney generative AI tool. The reasoning of its decision sharply limits the potential paths to receiving copyright in images created using generative AI tools, even where that output is generated in response to a prompt containing substantial textual authorship. The Copyright Office reasoned that because the person providing the textual prompts cannot predict how the generated image will look, that person is not an author of the image.The decision is subject to appeal but provides the first look at what the Registration Division of the Copyright Office thinks can and cannot be registered.​​​​​​Read our <a href="https://www2.mofo.com/e/323401/ight-office-denies-claim-email/8rmv2/551044510?h=vVXh7fcHWb5rV25be21cTTZSx7dICVxrfffLA6k03Ms" target="_blank">client alert</a>.<div></div>

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Copyright Office Denies Claim to Copyright in Generative AI Images

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The U.S. Copyright Office has denied an attempt to register copyright in images created using the Midjourney generative AI tool. The reasoning of its decision sharply limits the potential paths to receiving copyright in images created using generative AI tools, even where that output is generated in response to a prompt containing substantial textual authorship.

Copyright Office Denies Claim to Copyright in Generative AI Images

The digital revolution transforms business models and presents new privacy issues and ethical dilemmas. Companies deploying AI are often worried about legal compliance. Whether new AI applications are embraced by regulators, society, and customers (and therefore actually generate revenue) depends on ethical considerations rather than legal compliance. Especially for large established companies, it is a challenge to both drastically innovate in order to remain future-proof and at the same time take social responsibility. Those companies that learn to do both well will be more productive and more innovative. The session will address questions, such as:<ul><li>What are the ethical rules in play?</li><li>What are new ethical dilemmas?</li></ul>​​​​​​We will discuss ethical dilemmas encountered in practice when developing and implementing AI tooling:<ul><li>Distribution (optimization)</li><li>In retail (loyalty programs)</li><li>HR recruiting tools</li><li>Fraud prevention tooling</li><li>Financial services</li></ul>Thursday, April 13, 20238:00 am - 9:00 am PDT11:00 am - 12:00 am EDT4:00 pm - 5:00 pm BST5:00 pm - 6:00 pm CEST<a href="https://www.veracast.com/webcasts/mofo/mcle-programs/respai.cfm" target="_blank">Register</a>

Webinar - Responsible AI – Ethical Dilemma Training

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Managing Partner, Brussels

Alex van der Wolk, co-chair of Morrison Foerster’s preeminent Global Privacy & Data Security practice and managing partner of the firm’s Brussels office, employs his nearly 20 years of experience to advise global companies on their most complex data strategies and compliance programs governing all aspects of information management. 

With more than a decade of experience, Mr. van der Wolk helps clients develop privacy strategies for digital transformations, industrial IoT, telematics, Big Data, commercial and marketing programs, a

Alex van der Wolk

Alex van der Wolk, co-chair of Morrison Foerster’s preeminent Global Privacy & Data Security practice and managing partner of the firm’s Brussels office, employs his nearly 20 years of experience to advise global companies on their most complex data strategies and compliance programs governing all aspects of information management.

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Senior Of Counsel

Among the world’s best-known privacy and cybersecurity advisers, Lokke Moerel is regularly called upon by some of the most sophisticated multinational organizations to confront their global privacy and ethical challenges. Lokke routinely offers guidance to clients when implementing new technologies and digital business models and assists them with their global cybersecurity incident response and regulatory investigations.

Lokke Moerel

Lokke Moerel is among the world’s best-known privacy lawyers. She advises companies on their global information handling governance, strategy, and compliance. “An authority on data protection matters” (Chambers 2014), Lokke is consistently ranked as a leader in data protection law in Chambers Global and Legal 500. She is also professor of global ICT law at Tilburg University, member of the Cyber Security Council of the Netherlands, the advisory body of the Dutch cabinet, and member of the Board of Trustees of WWF International.What do you like best about your work? I enjoy thinking about the data privacy issues and ethical dilemma’s presented by the new technologies, and helping companies decide on how to tune them and implement on a global basis, in an emerging regulatory environment.What do you enjoy doing in your free time? Travel with my husband and three children, the modern arts, but most of all, a good book!What individual most inspired you, and why? In my former EU-based firm, there were no female role- models (I was the first female partner with children) and partners step out at age 55. After moving to MoFo, I met women years older than me and fully at the forefront of their field. What an inspiration! I still have a whole career in front of me.

Webinar - Responsible AI – Ethical Dilemma Training

The digital revolution transforms business models and presents new privacy issues and ethical dilemmas. Companies deploying AI are often worried about legal compliance

Heather Whitney, Evangeline Phang, Tessa Schwartz, and Aaron Rubin authored an article for Law360 covering whether the outputs of generative artificial intelligence tools are copyrightable."It may benefit companies that are using and improving AI technology to continuously identify and track the contributions by the company's own personnel to demonstrate a high degree of control, intention and creative influence over outputs, as well as revising the company's end user terms of service and third-party courts to include appropriate terms allocating ownership and other rights to AI-generated outputs," the authors wrote.Read the <a href="https://media2.mofo.com/v3/assets/blt5775cc69c999c255/blt6ef0f12eed0d4089/63e2e79814a2b44fa11dfc33/230203-outputs-ai-models-copyrightable.pdf" target="_blank">full article</a>.

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Evangeline Phang is an associate in the Technology Transactions Group of Morrison & Foerster’s San Francisco Office.
Her practice focuses on transactional matters involving intellectual property and t

Evangeline Phang

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Aaron is the chair of the firm’s Technology Transactions Group and co-chair of the Interactive + Digital Media Group. He advises clients on a wide range of complex transactions involving intellectual property and technology, including structuring and negotiating strategic licensing, development, collaboration, procurement, and distribution deals.

Aaron Rubin

Aaron P. Rubin

Are Outputs of AI Models Copyrightable?