Professor Shubha Ghosh, director of the Syracuse Intellectual Property Law Institute, spoke with TechCrunch about OpenAI’s recent statement not to use its patents offensively.
Ghosh noted that it isn’t clear if the statement has any legal backing and it won’t limit OpenAI from enforcing its rights under copyright, trade secret, or contract laws.
“Computer source code that guides ChatGPT would be protected by copyright law and trade secret law,” Ghosh said. “Terms that OpenAI includes in its terms of service would still be enforceable as contracts. Should OpenAI engage in conduct that deviates from the pledge, for example by suing another company or an individual for patent infringement, what OpenAI has lost temporarily is credibility.”