With the Dublin IP and R&D Summit 4.0 just under three weeks away, the anticipation is building!
We’re excited to introduce Skirmanta Balsevičienė, Senior IP Legal Counsel at Vinted, as one of our distinguished panellists at this year’s Summit.
Skirmanta has been working in the legal field for over 10 years, starting with law firms in Lithuania and, for the past three years, advising as a Senior IP Legal Counsel at Vinted. She is passionate about creativity and its role in helping businesses succeed while respecting and preserving legal boundaries, as well as motivating creators.
Her LegalTech LL.M. studies have further broadened her curiosity and eagerness to experiment with technological tools, helping her understand how they can be beneficial in everyday work. This allows her to dedicate more of her time to direct interactions with businesses on substantial and specific legal matters.
We had the privilege of sitting down with Skirmanta to delve into her unique insights and experience. Here’s what she had to share:
What do you see as the most significant global trends and challenges currently impacting the IP landscape, and how should IP professionals prepare to address these issues?
The most significant global trend and challenges currently impacting the IP landscape is by no doubt the rise of powerful artificial intelligence and specifically numbers of new genAI technologies and tools offered on the market. The loud marketing messages promoting these tools claim that these tools make our everyday work efficient, open new doors for creativity and enhance it, but how to choose right? We, as IP professionals and business advisors, on the one hand have businesses excitement and eagerness to try and test these innovations, on the other hand - we have legal uncertainty and many unknowns on how to proceed in a legally safe and compliant manner. The greatest challenge in my opinion is that being a good IP lawyer is not enough - you need to become a good tech expert: understand how technology works back-end; how it was built etc. Moreover, there is nothing much from legal theory too. The biggest trick is to be practical, innovation oriented and not to create false alarms so the business could move forward with innovation in a risk balanced way.
In what ways are emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and blockchain, influencing the IP field, and how should IP Professionals adapt to these technological advancements?
Indeed, AI is influencing the IP field a lot these days, especially for IP legal professionals who work with tech companies or art producers. In this context, IP lawyer’s role is changing rapidly. We do not have the luxury to stick to old legal argumentation, knowing the rule of letter is not enough. Now we must understand the technology and bring this logic into legal thinking which might not be an easy task. The best tip is not to be afraid to test different tools ourselves so as to better understand what we are dealing with. Moreover, if we employ genAI tools to create IP assets, we should give the best guidance to creators on how these tools should be used in order not to endanger the value of the final result and business.
What are the ethical considerations and potential legal challenges associated when using AI tools internally?
When we think about AI tools and ethics the first thing I always remember is that AI tools are developed by humans and humans are driven by prejudices; values and understandings determined by our cultures, communities, families, there are a lot of subjectivities too; some tools were developed by using illegally gathered data; some tools are not “friendly” for inputting confidential information. Given that and in my opinion there is no ethically perfect tool so critical thinking is essential for what purposes we use these tools and what we are offered by these tools. It is essential not to be isolated when using AI tools internally, but always share experiences, feedback with different stakeholders in order to understand the value and compliance with the company's standards. Lawyers should actively escalate to business about the cases when there are doubts about specific tools when it comes to data privacy or potential copyright infringement.
What are the most effective strategies for enforcing IP rights on a global scale, particularly in combating issues like counterfeiting, piracy, and infringement?
The most effective strategies for IP enforcement is based on clear priorities and employing the right technology fitting for the purpose you want to achieve. For different businesses priorities differ too. If you are hosting a platform for C2C second hand trade, you need to understand your legal obligations as an online intermediary and what needs to be implemented from a legal standpoint in order to aim at having a safe and reliable platform at the same time you should be constantly preserving the reputation of your brand. For online based business technology is the key. The testing of different technologies to address specific IP related issues and infringements will help to find the best one. Always keep in mind that technology is improving every day, new players are coming into the market so do not make long term commitments and be open minded, but at the same time choose your tools carefully because implementation takes time and resources.
What do you predict for the future of IP management and protection over the next decade, and what innovations or changes do you believe will be most transformative for the industry?
For the next decade and for IP management and protection, I expect that we will have better, improved and more effective tools to detect IP infringements, advise on the next steps, as well as “smarter” tools managing IP portfolios i.e. trademark and domain names renewals. I believe there will be AI tools which would help to spot more sophisticated IP infringements. At the same time, legal regulations and standards are becoming higher especially at the EU level so with a combination of law and technology - I expect the internet to become a more trustworthy place.
How do you balance the need for innovation with the protection of intellectual property rights within a company?
Each business has a different view and approach to innovation. Vinted has always been tech and innovation pro so with each technological restriction we should be very clear on the potential risks and its likelihood. Internally we have a process in place and each genAI usage case is analysed by different teams to provide feedback and the best recommendation for business. We tend not to say “NO” to tech tools or specific usage cases, but advise how tools can be used in a safe and legally compliant way. I am proud to say that our people are AI literate and well informed on different legal risks so the dialogue between legal and business stakeholders is rather enriching.
Learn directly from Skirmanta and other industry leaders this September at the Dublin IP and R&D Summit. Join the EU IP Strategy Day panel, ‘AI as a Threat,’ where Skirmanta will be joined by professionals from companies like ICON plc and Accenture to explore the new rules and regulations around AI and their implications for IP and copyright.
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