The impact of Big Data developments on Intellectual Property. First, what about patents? Second, a short overview of other IP rights and ownership of data in an age of Big Data.
1. Big Data and Intellectual Property
SCL - 15 October 2013
2. The story of
the wheat on
the chessboard
18,446,744,073,709,551,615
64
=2 -1
3. •
Earth mass
24
= 5.97219 x 10 kg
•
Wheat mass (1 grain = 1g)
16
= 1.8446 x 10 kg
•
Wheat mass
= 1/100,000,000 Earth
•
2013 grain production
= 2,140 Million Tonnes
12
(= 2.140 x 10 kg)
•
Wheat mass
= 10,000 x 2013 production
5. What does this mean?
•
Humans struggle with:
- intuitive
understanding
mathematics
- exponential growth
6. •
The amount of data
doubles every 18-24
months
•
90 % of all data in
the world was
created in the last 2
years
•
most data is
generated by users,
sensors or
machines
Big Data
18. Value of Big Data
•
•
•
Volume
Velocity
Variety
•
•
•
Access
Analysis & intelligence
Recombination
19. Can you own data?
•
•
It’s a non-rivalrous commodity
•
Data are almost always being
recombined & contextual
Most data are generated
automatically (sensors,
machines) - i.e. by “someone
else”
20. How to “own” data?
•
Copyright? Where’s the creativity in
data picked up by a sensor or a
machine?
•
•
•
Database right & compilations?
•
Other legal foundation?
(tort,criminal)
Trade secret? “value is in secrecy”
Patents? Analysis? “Frozen
algorithm”
21. IP on Big Data
•
IP is based on first making the abundant scarce, then charge for
access/use
•
Will this approach still work for IP/legal advice on Big Data?
22. Value of Big Data is in open use
and access, not ownership
•
Big data is like a
river: the value is
in the flow, not the
source
23. IP approach:
•
Advice on how to increase
use of data, rather than
restricting/limiting
•
Integrate open source, open
data, open standards as part
of any advice