When: Tuesday, June 25, 2024, 3:00 PM - 5:00 PMWhere: CCLS, Room 3.1, Queen Mary, University of London, 69 Lincoln's Inn Fields London WC2A
Professors Noam Shemtov, Olga Simson, Laura Edgar, and Myriam Christmann from the Centre for Commercial Law Studies discussed the problem of protecting intellectual property rights in digital art, and the challenges created by Generative Artificial Intelligence, as well as the intellectual property licensing system for digital assets created by V-Art, as an example for overcoming these problems.
The seminar discussed the risks and benefits of a licensing system to automate intellectual property management processes for NFTs and other digital assets. The seminar explores the challenges stemming from two sets of technologies, digital art traded on the Blockchain & NFTs and Generative AI, and how the law and licensing systems can deal with those.
The discussion was led and moderated by Noam Shemtov, Chair in Intellectual Property and Technology Law and Director of the Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute (QMIPRI), CCLS, Queen Mary University of London.
Laura Edgar presented the copyright issues arising from the training of AI models.
Olga Simson discussed the significance of the blockchain for digital art and illustrate licensing mechanisms for overcoming the legal issues. Despite the ups and downs of the digital art market, the Blockchain continues to develop as a tool for managing rights to digital (and physical) assets. In February 2024, for the first time since the fall, the NFT market showed strong growth of 25%, covering new brands and the luxury segment.
Myriam Christmann addressed the role that Artificial Intelligence plays in the creative process and what this could mean for the visual arts sector. She will explore the protectability of the resulting output both in terms of authorship and copyright subsistence.
Who is this seminar addressed to?
Digital artists, museums, galleries, platforms and other professional market actors are invited to participate in the discussion, as well as lawyers, legal scholars and representatives of the academic community.
The speakers
Ukrainian Professor Olga Simson joined the Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS) in Queen Mary University of London in September 2022 as a scholar. Olga was a researcher at the Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI) at Strasbourg University. She lectures in the areas of intellectual property and digital law. Olga taught for the Institute of Art and Law and the World Intellectual Property Organization. She led a project with the participation of representatives of the Sotheby's Institute of Art, with whom she has co-authored a Guide to the Art Market. As a lawyer, she has more than 20 years of experience in protecting intellectual property in the creative industries. In Ukraine, Olga was a long-term leader of projects with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation. She is a current professor at the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, and in 2020 she founded the startup V-Art.
Professor Noam Shemtov joined the Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS) at Queen Mary University of London in September 2009. He is a Professor of Intellectual Property and Technology Law at CCLS and a Director of the Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute. He lectures in areas of Intellectual Property, Technology and Creative Industries and his research interests are also focused in these fields. Noam has led research projects and studies funded by UK Research Councils and by industry, national, supranational and commercial organizations, such as AHRC, CISAC, Microsoft, WIPO, European Patent Office, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the European Space Agency. He has been recently chosen by the European Patent Office as one of the 50 most celebrated leading voices in the field of sustainable innovation throughout the years. Noam is a qualified solicitor both in the UK and in Israel.
Laura Edgar is a Senior Lecturer/Associated Professor at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS) and Director of the London, Paris and Distance Learning LLM programmes in Technology, Media and Telecommunications law. She lectures in London and Paris on AI, Robotics and the Law and E-commerce law and teaches IP and Protection of Computer Software on the Distance Learning LLM programme.
Myriam Christmann is a PhD researcher at CCLS. Myriam is a Herchel Smith Doctoral researcher with an expertise in intellectual property, artificial intelligence and the creative industries. She lectures on artificial intelligence, copyright and art at Queen Mary, University of London and the University of South Wales. As a researcher Myriam is interested in the interplay of law and culture and has presented her research internationally, including at the World Intellectual Property Organisation. Prior to pursuing her PhD Myriam worked as a researcher at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, where she contributed to various international research projects. She has also worked at the European Union Intellectual Property Office and in private practice in South Africa. She holds an LL.B. in European & Comparative Law from Maastricht University and an LL.M. in Intellectual Property Law from Queen Mary, University of London.
V-Art is a Ukrainian startup that provides an automated intellectual property licensing solution for brands, creators and artificial intelligence developers who want to simplify the licensing process, monetize content and minimize legal risks. The V-Art team, founded by Olga Simson and her partners, combines experience in the field of intellectual property, artificial intelligence and blockchain. V-Art became the best European startup in the Web 3 category according to Europas Tech Award, supported by Meta and L’Oréal Group.