Intellectual Property Rights of the Future. In the movie Margin call, there is a scene where the Chief Executive is called to a meeting with the executives in the early morning. The CEO sets out his view of the proceedings;
TULD: I’m here for one reason and one reason alone. I’m here to guess what the music might do a week, a month, a year from now. That’s it. Nothing more. And standing here tonight, I’m afraid that I don’t hear a thing… Just silence… So, now that we know the music has stopped, what can we do about it? Mr. Cohen? Ms. Robertson? I’m afraid I think this is where you’re supposed to step back in. Lord knows we’ve relied enough on Mr. Sullivan tonight. What do you have for us? … What have I told you since the first day you stepped into my office? There are three ways to make a living in this business, be first, be smarter, or cheat. Now, I don’t cheat. And although I like to think we have some pretty smart people in this building, it sure is a hell of a lot easier to just be first.
Intellectual Property Rights
The function of intellectual property law is not to create rights per se but to protect financial interests that already exist to stop copycatting or infringement on established sales.
The underlying enforcement mechanism is the law of tort- passing off. There are some enforcement provisions in the Copyrights Acts which are statutory and criminal sanctions but in the main, most intellectual property rights are enforced in the Courts where;
- The Rights Holder is asserting that a right is being infringed.
- They must prove that right exists.
- They must show use, prior use or some exclusivity to the Trade Mark, Patent or Copyright.
- They must show that the Defendant is infringing on those rights.
- They are then entitled to damages commensurate with the losses of the infringement or effect of the infringement.
In simple terms, they must be first in establishing the economic rights they are asserting.
With the emergence of new technologies and particular digital technologies there is a changing landscape of new technologies.
Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Act 2026
Artificial Intelligence and the generation of images and videos is an emerging area of law and regulators are carefully considering the effect of these generations on intellectual property law and differing approaches are emerging.
The Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Act 2026 established the AI Office of Ireland as a independent statutory body and single point of contact for citizens, national regulators and the European Commission. Paul Byrne serves as its first CEO.
It is intended to be designated as a market surveillance authority of AI.
Historical Examples – The Silna Spirits
Foresight in emerging trends has led to profitable examples. An interesting example is the example of Ozzie Silna and Daniel Silna and their lawyer Donal Schupak.
In 1974 Ozzie and Diel Silna who owned a New Jersey textile company bout an Americal Basketball Association team known as the Carolina Cougars. They moved the franchise to St Lous and rebranded as the Silna Spirits.
The NBA and the ABA merged in 1976. The NBA absorbed four franchises from the ABA – The Denver Nuggest, the Indiana Pacers, the San Antonio Spurs and the New York Nets (Now the New Jersey Nets).
They negotiated a 1/7th share of the each of the previous ABA teams “visual media rights” in perpetuity.
In 1997 the NBA negotiated a $2.6 billion dollar deal with NBC and Turner.
In 2014 the NBA bought out the Silna brothers for $500 million dollars. It is estimated that over the lifetime of the deal they earned $800 million for team that had folded in 1976.
Intellectual Property Rights of the Future
This is one example of calculated foresight and obtaining the rights to intellectual property that led, over time, to an extraordinary outcome.
The Intellectual property rights of the future may exist in;
- Royalties for personal images in AI use.
- Royalties for music on new platforms or self publishing.
- Royalties for phone media or other social engines or inventions.
Print media has been in existence for 1,200 years or so. The internet has been in existence since January 1983. It has been a world wide web since the late 90s. It is in its infancy of creative output and opportunity.
Setanta Solicitors are available to assist with any Intellectual Property Queries or novel applications that may arise and can be contacted at 01 215 0168 or info@setantasolicitors.ie
