Mike Justus Interviewed in Law360: “Tech's AI Coding Boom on Collision Course With Copyright”

Mike Justus was interviewed in a Law360 article titled “Tech's AI Coding Boom on Collision Course With Copyright.” The article discusses the copyright issues that arise when tech companies use generative artificial intelligence tools to write their software code. If that code is copied or leaked, the use of generative AI makes it difficult for those companies to claim exclusive rights to the code. Many of these companies will talk publicly about using AI in their coding process but may not be aware of the legal consequences in doing so.

Justus said a lot of these companies "aren't aware of, or aren't focused on," how their public comments may affect their copyrights. "Or perhaps they feel that the technology has a sense of inevitability and they have to use AI to keep up and they're willing to sacrifice copyright and rely on other" areas of intellectual property law, he said. "But for sure, the overall issue of copyright sort of disappearing for software code is a real issue."

"If you're looking at how to protect software with [IP law], you're looking at copyright as potentially a shrinking portion of the IP mix," Justus said, adding that rights holders could start relying more on trade secrets, contracts, and trade dress, which can extend to screen displays.

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