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What You Need To Know

  1. From 1 June 2023, a new EU unitary patent system (UPS) will become fully effective. A unitary patent (UP) is a European patent granted by the European Patent Office (EPO) to which, at the patent owner’s request, unitary effect is given for the territory of the EU Member States that have ratified the Unified Patent Court Agreement – currently, 17 EU Member States. UPs give patent owners uniform protection across participating EU Member States, removing the need for national validation procedures as well as individual national enforcement in each EU Member State.

On 15 March 2023, the UK ICO published an update to its Guidance on AI and Data Protection (the “Guidance”), following requests from the UK industry to clarify requirements for fairness in artificial intelligence (“AI”).  The Guidance contains advice on the interpretation of relevant data protection law as it applies to AI, and recommendations on good practice for organisational and technical measures to mitigate risks caused by AI.

In light of the increasing prevalence of automated “self-driving” vehicles, the Law Commissions of England and Wales and Scotland published a joint report on automated vehicles at the beginning of last year, which is currently before the UK Parliament for consideration. The report recommends the introduction of a new Automated Vehicles Act specifically to regulate automated vehicles and recalibrate legal accountability for their use.

In September 2022, the European Commission published its proposal for a new product liability directive (“PLD”), and a proposal for a directive on adapting non-contractual civil liability rules to artificial intelligence (“AILD”).