Intellectual property: Data mining for all

In June 2022, the UK Government announced the outcome of its consultation on intellectual property and artificial intelligence. In a bid to make the UK an “AI superpower”, the Government will be introducing new provisions in copyright law to allow data mining and analysis of datasets for commercial use. These new changes will impact on many Scottish businesses, in particular those that rely on the use of, or access to, large datasets, for example, comparison websites and research companies.

Background

Under current UK copyright legislation, a company must first obtain permission if it wishes to access and commercially exploit mined data from a third party. Often this will be given in the form of a data mining licence, with a payment being made to the third party for access and use of its data. Under existing rules, if a person accesses or exploits such data for commercial purposes without consent, this will most likely constitute copyright infringement. Currently, the only exception to the text and data mining rules is in relation to non-commercial purposes, such that a person can freely use and access mined data as long as this is for non-commercial purposes.

What will be changing?

The outcome of the Government’s consultation will see the introduction of a new exception to allow text and data mining for commercial purposes. Text and data mining means using computational techniques to analyse large amounts of information to identify patterns, trends and other useful information. It is widely used in research, pharma, marketing and business analysis. It is anticipated that the rationale for this change is to encourage innovation and AI development in the UK.

The new provisions will undoubtedly favour businesses that use and access mined datasets, with limits being placed on the owners of mined data. For example, where a third party has lawful access to the data, rights holders will no longer be able to restrict the right to run computational analysis on a dataset and will not be able to contract or opt-out of the exception. The consultation did, however, stress the need to maintain certain safeguards for rights holders, including their ability to restrict access to their data, or indeed charge a fee for access.

How will this affect businesses?

The Government has said that introducing an exception that also extends to commercial data mining will bring benefits to a wide range of stakeholders, including researchers, AI developers and small businesses.

Companies that rely on being able to access and use mined data commercially will benefit from not having to obtain permission from multiple rights holders and pay an additional licence fee – it is hoped we will start to see the benefits in a range of sectors from public health to the creative arts.

However, the biggest benefit will most likely be felt by those in the realm of AI. The new provisions will encourage companies to use mined data in ways that were previously limited. It is hoped this will encourage the development of AI and will directly benefit AI companies providing data mining and related services in Scotland and, indeed, the rest of the UK. We expect to see the legislative proposals in 2023, which should provide greater clarity in how this exception can be utilised.