Alston & Bird has been prosecuting patents in the artificial intelligence (AI) space since the late 2000s. We have assisted creators and implementers of AI technology by providing comprehensive legal services in all aspects of AI technology creation and deployment.
Our team of attorneys has a thorough understanding of the legal and regulatory issues surrounding AI technology, including intellectual property, cybersecurity and data privacy, employment, health care, and ethical considerations. We work with you to navigate the legal landscape and ensure that your AI technology projects are compliant with applicable laws and regulations.
We advise on intellectual property protection, including patent and trademark protection, and negotiate licensing agreements and partnerships. We also assist with data privacy compliance, drafting and reviewing contracts and policies, and providing guidance on ethical considerations in AI development. Our regulatory and legislative attorneys keep abreast of rumored and developing AI regulation in the United States and abroad, and counsel our clients as nuances develop at the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, and federal and state governments.
No matter the size of your enterprise or the stage of AI development and implementation you find yourself in, our team is equipped to handle all aspects of AI technology law. We are committed to providing you with practical, cost-effective solutions to help you achieve your goals while minimizing legal risk.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is rapidly evolving and offers tremendous potential – but also presents novel and complex legal challenges for your company. Put our team to work for you and your enterprise in navigating the legal landscape of AI technology.
Privacy/Cyber/Data
- Assisted with AI data mining to speed up genetic research for a leading pharmaceutical company.
- Assisted a palm biometric identification company launching an enterprise tool for biometric single sign-on.
- Counseled on the use of AI in the leading provider of medical records translation to bridge different health system datasets.
- Assisted with AI for use in payment fraud recognition for high-volume gaming transactions.
- Advising clients on the impacts of the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA) in the EU, and monitoring developments in the proposed EU Data Act.
- Providing assistance with web scraping and using alternative data reports for our financial institution clients, retailers, and data providers to Fortune 500 companies.
- Assisted with the storage of medical records in telehealth robotic terminals.
- Assisted with securing robotics and automated manufacturing equipment under specific security and audit standards such as NIST 800-53A, SANS CIS, and HITRUST.
- Conducting exploratory design security stress tests of home-based SCADA equipment for a solar manufacturer and for a manufacturer of electric vehicles.
- Counseled on the use of drones for aerial surveys of mixed-use property areas.
Health Care
- Engaged by a collective voice of medical imaging equipment manufacturers to advise on coverage and reimbursement issues related to AI-enhanced medical technology.
- Advised on health care regulatory, Food and Drug Administration, and intellectual property matters and conducted related diligence for the purchase of a developer of artificial intelligence for assisting health care providers in interpreting radiology and imaging results.
- Assisted a health care revenue cycle management company in developing compliant robotic process automation for scraping and analyzing large amounts of health care data from multiple clearinghouses and electronic data interchanges.
Technology Deployment and Transactions
- For a consumer goods manufacturer, advising on the use of Big Data analytics to cull real-time consumer behavior data and better personalize the customer experience. To do this, we assisted the manufacturer with data mapping and implementing privacy tagging for it to create a data use manual to better coordinate with the data science and business teams on appropriate uses of data.
- Created data use manuals in industries such as retail, automotive, e-commerce, banking, fintech, and transportation.
- Advising two leading quick-service restaurants on their ongoing consumer privacy programs, including extensive use of real-time data to optimize the consumer experience in various regions of the globe.
- Counseled leading retailers on the implementation of advanced technologies in stores and in mobile offerings and the resulting privacy, AI regulatory, and data strategy implications.
- Provided explanation of a client’s use of AI within its consumer products processes in an open and non-threatening manner for clients in high-regulatory target industries (consumer technology, gaming, and children’s manufacturing) with an eye toward regulatory inquiries and ongoing regulatory investigations.
- Advising a client that provides sleep health solutions on the use of ChatGPT-4 for software coding.
Corporate & Financing
- Represented Truist Financial Corporation in its acquisition of strategic assets, including the Zaloni Arena platform, from data technology firm Zaloni Inc., allowing Truist to accelerate its data governance, metadata management, advanced analytics, and artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) programs.
- Represented Blackrock Neurotech, a leading implantable brain-computer interface technology company, in its acquisition of substantially all the assets of MindX, a spatial computing software firm.
- Counsel to Credit Suisse, financial advisor to automation and robotics company Berkshire Gray, in its $375 million sale to Japan-listed strategic investment holding company SoftBank.
- Counsel to Houlihan Lokey, financial advisor to CM Life Sciences II, a special purpose acquisition company, in its $1.23 billion acquisition of SomaLogic, a leading AI-data driven proteomics platform for advanced research and clinical applications.
- Represented Pamlico Capital in its acquisition of InRule Technology, an AI-powered intelligence automation platform provider.
Intellectual Property
- Drafting and prosecuting patent applications related to artificial intelligence, machine learning, and large language models, including computer vision systems, natural language processing systems, autonomous vehicles, robotics and automation systems, predictive analytics systems, and virtual assistants, among other applications.
- Counseling clients on inventorship and disclosures for AI-involved applications.
- Counseling clients on validity questions and challenges related to the evolving Section 101 patent eligibility landscape.
- Counseling on copyright ownership and infringement.
- Drafting and counseling refreshed licensing and royalty agreements with the complexity of AI-generated and modified content.
- Counseling on fair use and transformative works, including parody.