IP Protection Caught In AI-Fuelled Geopolitical Crossfire

(MENAFN- Asia Times) Amid the military posturing, economic sanctions, and Political power struggles shaping the US-China rivalry, intellectual property (IP) disputes remain a major battleground.

In January 2025 , Chinese company DeepSeek's latest AI model helped wipe US$1 trillion off the US stock market by demonstrating how open-sourced collaboration-refining publicly available AI technology-can rival proprietary models without massive investment.

Major US AI company OpenAI, however, quickly accused DeepSeek of infringing on its work, joining the chorus of US officials and companies that have long accused China of IP theft across various industries.

Yet OpenAI itself has been accused of using other copyrighted material without permission to build its generative AI model, even though it maintains that it is protected under the fair use doctrine .

The internet and newer technologies like AI and 3D printing allow creators to produce, distribute, and monetize their work without traditional gatekeepers. Yet, these same tools expose these works to rampant infringement and diminished control.

Globalization has further complicated IP protection, with fragmented enforcement and tensions over protecting innovation and public access.

Globalization and IP Protections

While IP has weathered past technological disruptions, today's rapid innovation in a globalized context is dismantling old protections faster than policymakers can adapt.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has positioned itself as the key mediator to address 21st-century IP disputes involving countries, corporations, and individuals, but faces growing obstacles in keeping pace with the fast-moving changes.

Advocates argue that strong IP laws drive innovation by protecting creators, encouraging collaboration in a fair system, and enabling others to build on existing work. Critics counter that these laws often favor large corporations and shareholders over consumers and developing countries, hinder collaboration, create monopolies, and restrict access to essential goods.

Global IP protections are nonetheless a relatively recent concept. They trace back to Ancient Greek recipe safeguards but gained momentum in the last few centuries. The printing press revolutionized content distribution in the 15th century, and the Industrial Revolution later fueled invention, mass production, and transportation advances-alongside rampant IP theft. Post-independence, US entities frequently copied British industrial designs , accelerating industrial growth.

Pivotal agreements-like the Paris Convention (1883) for industrial property, the Berne Convention (1886) for literary and artistic works, and the Madrid Agreement (1891) for international registration-laid the foundation for today's global IP framework.

WIPO, created in 1967, and the World Trade Organization (WTO), created in 1995, later emerged alongside other bodies to oversee the four main types of IP -patents (inventions), trademarks (brand identity), copyrights (creative works), and trade secrets (like customer data and algorithms).

Regulating an evolving digital world

The WTO sought to harmonize trade rules amid accelerating globalization in the 1990s. Its Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement aimed to standardize global IP protections but has struggled to do so .

Only WTO members can participate in the agreement, excluding some African, Middle Eastern, and Central Asian countries, and private actors. The WTO's processes can be slow , with few disputes reaching resolution -most are either stalled or settled on terms dictated by more powerful members .

TRIPS's compulsory licensing allows third parties to produce patented inventions without the owner's consent under specific conditions, but such measures often provoke retaliation. When Thailand issued a license for HIV medication in 2007 , the U.S. and the EU pressured it to backtrack, while pharmaceutical giant Abbott separately responded by withholding some of its products from the Thai market.

Additionally, Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have sidestepped TRIPS enforcement. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) , for instance, curbed IP violations more effectively than WTO.

The United States's unilateral actions, including“blocking the reappointment of Appellate Body members who were seen as not having 'served' US interests sufficiently,”-especially since 2019-have further weakened the system.

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