IP, Data and AI in the digital age – Part 1

This Oh Lawdy! is the first in a series looking at the extent to which modern laws of IP are adapted to the digital age – spoiler alert – they’re not! – and what can be done to make things better.

When I say IP, I mean copyright, database rights and laws relating to ownership of data (so excluding GDPR).

Trademarks, patents and other forms of IP are not going to be part of this series: they are subject to very different sets of rules and, in practice, of much more limited application.

A useful way to approach this is to ask – if I had to redesign the economy to reflect the digital age, how would I do that?

One of the fundamental constituents of any economy is what can be property, and the duration of property – ie how long ownership lasts for.

In Western economies, if you purchase a piece of physical property – a house, land, or some kind of object – your ownership is unlimited in time. In other words, perpetual. You yourself may not be around perpetually (though your company might be), but you can always leave the property to someone in your will.

If you purchase a piece of copyright, your ownership will last for the life of the author, plus 70 years.

If you purchase a database, then (in the UK and the EU) your ownership will last 15 years.

Perpetual, life + 70 years, 15 years. Is that a level playing field for investment in those three different types of property?

Obviously not.

Does that sound like a sensible way to organise an economy in the digital age?

Obviously not.

More on this next week.

23rd June 2026