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This article explores the rights available specifically for AI algorithms, in particular comparing the protection conferred by patents and trade secrets.

AI is one of the most exciting areas of innovation, particularly for start-ups and spin-outs. 

Almost every industry is considering the potential of generative AI to enhance productivity and creativity. However, there are some important, unresolved questions, including in particular whether the output of generative AIs attracts copyright, and who owns and can enforce that right.

There are currently important legal and policy discussions ongoing in numerous territories about whether the outputs from generative AI should be protected by copyright.

Parties training generative AIs on data obtained from third parties are at risk of infringing the rights of those third parties, on the basis that the data used in the training set was copied, without authorisation.

Under the UPC rules, an applicant can seek an order to preserve evidence or permit inspection of evidence. This procedure resembles the "Saisie-Contrefaçon" procedure, a common feature of patent litigation in France.