In this RallyCast episode, John Paul Keeler and Carl Osterlof sit down with Sean Clark, Vice President of Media Licensing at Adeia, to discuss copyright in the AI era. Drawing from two decades of experience in media licensing, Sean explores how "efficient infringement" strategies employed by AI companies echo the early days of digital piracy, but with far broader implications for creators.

Twenty years ago, the music industry faced its first digital disruption when Napster challenged traditional distribution models. Today, we're witnessing history repeat itself as AI training models scrape creative content at unprecedented scale, leaving artists and creators scrambling for fair compensation. The parallels are striking, but the stakes have never been higher. Unlike the music industry's eventual resolution through platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, AI's appetite for training data presents a more fundamental challenge to creative ownership.

Sean brings a unique perspective to this episode, having witnessed firsthand the transformation from physical media to streaming platforms. His experience spans the evolution from Napster's peer-to-peer chaos to today's sophisticated licensing frameworks.

Also in this episode:

• How the shift from music sampling to AI training data reveals patterns of technological disruption and industry adaptation
• Why efficient infringement strategies employed by AI companies echo the early days of digital piracy, but with broader implications
• What the Tracy Chapman example teaches us about individual creators' ability to protect their work in the AI era
• How IP provenance and data transparency could create a more equitable framework for AI training while preserving creator rights

About Sean Clark

Sean Clark is Vice President of Media Licensing at Adeia, responsible for IP licensing strategy across media and entertainment. He has over 20 years of experience in intellectual property, with prior roles at Ericsson, TiVo, Intellectual Ventures, and Microsoft. His work spans standards-essential patents, technology transactions, and licensing across sectors including mobile, streaming, e-commerce and consumer electronics. Sean is also an active member of the Licensing Executives Society, participating in industry events and discussions on IP trends.

About Adeia

Adeia is a leading R&D company that accelerates the adoption of innovative technologies in the media, entertainment and semiconductor industries. Adeia’s continuous development of foundational solutions enables and shapes the future of digital entertainment, electronics and high-performance computing.

What if we told you in 2014 that patent data would soon be powering C-suite decisions across every industry? In this reflective RallyCast episode, John-Paul Keeler is joined by co-host Carl Osterlof and Ocean Tomo's Sam Wiley to explore how dramatically the patent intelligence landscape has transformed over the past decade, why the future we imagined is already here, and how the future we anticipate is just round the corner.

Ten years ago, patent intelligence was the domain of specialized professionals armed with Boolean search expertise. Today, we're living in what Sam Wiley calls an "IP economy" where most companies, regardless of industry, are technology companies dealing with Intellectual property. The Transformation has been remarkable. Patent data now flows across enterprises, informing decisions from R&D strategy to financing.

The rise of AI has accelerated this shift beyond anyone's predictions, moving us from Semantic search overlays to ChatGPT-level Intelligence that would have seemed like science fiction ten years ago. But perhaps the equally significant change isn't technological – it's psychological. The patent intelligence community has shed its self-limiting beliefs about what business leaders can understand and embrace. No more softening language with terms like "innovation intelligence." As Sam puts it: "It's gloves off when it comes to patent data and IP data."

Also in this episode:

• How the shift from physical library research to Boolean to AI-powered tools has democratized patent intelligence across organizations
• Why the increasing number of product counsels reveals a fundamental change in how companies integrate IP into product development
• What the boom in IP-backed financing indicates about increased sophistication among both lenders and borrowers
• How AI adoption has shifted from "trust but verify" to full acceptance in just the past year

Learn more about IPRally at iprally.com and get a free, 3 day trial of IPRally at iprally.com/trial.

About Ocean Tomo‍

Ocean Tomo, a part of JS Held, provides expert opinion, consulting, and advisory services focused on Intellectual property (IP) and intangible assets. Their work spans IP valuation, litigation support, Licensing strategy, and M&A advisory. With deep courtroom experience and a global team, they assist clients on complex technical, legal, and financial matters across a wide range of industries and jurisdictions.

Connect with Sam on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/samawiley/

Since current intellectual property laws are ill-equipped to protect neural network architectures and training algorithms, there’s a growing number of companies increasingly relying on trade secrets. But is this for the best? Many people argue that this undermines transparency and contradicts the patent system’s fundamental purpose of encouraging technological disclosure, and the lack of transparency itself could invite further regulations. There is of course valid logic behind this behavior. The extensive disclosure required in a patent application poses a significant risk, especially when the innovation, such as an algorithm, is relatively easy to replicate, and the pace of technological advancement in the domain far outstrips the slow-moving bureaucracy of patent offices. These challenges raise the question of whether the AI revolution calls for an IP revolution – to protect innovation from being stifled, but also to maintain relevancy of the patent system. What could a new IP regime where disclosure is actually promoted look like?

In this episode, which was recorded in our new fancy RallyCast studio at our London office, Carl and JP discuss this topic and more, such as:

• Why should IP be considered a growth catalyst rather than just an asset protector?
• Why is IP such an underutilized source of intelligence? IP data can inform decisions across a wide range of areas, from investments and R&D strategies to product development and even partnership building. How can we make it more accessible to different stakeholders?
• Do we need to speed up the processing of AI protections, and what would the potential outcomes be? By the time a patent is published after 18 months, most AI companies will have advanced far beyond what was filed.
• Is the EU AI Act something that addresses a symptom rather than the root cause?

We also get a book recommendation from Carl, namely Deep Utopia by Nick Bostrom. Carl explains why it's an impressive piece of work.

Learn more about IPRally at iprally.com and get a free, 3 day trial of IPRally at iprally.com/trial.

How can transparent systems enhance user trust, optimize operations, and even prevent harm in real-world applications? We kick off the second season of RallyCast with a topic that’s at the heart of everything we do – AI transparency, which has been crucial for us in building trust since IPRally was founded in 2018.

In this episode, host John Paul Keeler is joined by two expert guests: Josh Wert from Einride and Sakari Arvela from IPRally. Together, they explore the transformative impact of AI across diverse industries – from autonomous driving to intellectual property. The trio discusses the critical role of transparency in AI, the evolving regulatory frameworks, and the ethical considerations and perceptions that can vary not only between industries but also across different cultures.

In the autonomous vehicle industry, where decisions can be a matter of life and death, a critical factor is implementing technology initially in controlled, predictable environments and ensuring that only fully transparent models are used.

Learn more about IPRally at iprally.com and get a free, 3 day trial of IPRally at iprally.com/trial.

In this episode, John Paul Keeler invites IPRally's co-founders Juho Kallio and Juuso Piskonen to talk about the history of IPRally and how the first ideas took form at a co-founder networking event in Helsinki seven years ago.

Learn about the nature of patent data, the difference between Graph AI and LLM, what IPRay is and what it means for speed and cost efficiency in IPRally's development.

And have you ever wondered why the snow thrower became IPRally’s mascot? Tune in to find out!

Amidst economic constraints, industry convergence, and the need for improved patent quality, patent workflows demand a paradigm shift to meet the evolving landscape. The current macro environment combined with the increasing maturity of AI initiatives opens up a unique window of opportunity to explore and take advantage of these innovative solutions.

In the second episode of RallyCast, John Paul Keeler invites Andreas Cehlinder for a discussion on his latest blog post.

Artificial intelligence has integrated into an expanding array of workflows over the last 18 months, and the realm of IP is no exception. AI opens up countless new possibilities when it comes to streamlining your patent work, some of them more obvious than others. Which ones of them will have the most impact?

In this inaugural episode, Sakari and John Paul dig deeper into the patent AI use cases covered in a recent post on the IPRally blog, from drafting and searching to third-party observations and proactive risk management.

Tune in as we examine the evolving intersection of AI and patent work, uncovering new insights and possibilities.