World IP Day: Experts calling for IP reform in the age of AI

Techday NZ

24-04-2025

This year's theme, "IP and Music: Feel the Beat of IP", highlights the importance of protecting creativity in a rapidly evolving digital age. But as IP laws are pushed to their limits by AI and data-driven innovation, some experts are saying reform – not deletion – is what's really needed.
Plot twist as Musk and Dorsey reignite IP debate
This World Intellectual Property (IP) Day, there's a plot twist from Silicon Valley with tech titans Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk reigniting the age-old question: Does IP promote and protect innovation, or smother it in red tape?
Dorsey's blunt call to dismantle IP systems and Musk's swift support isn't just Twitter banter. For many in the industry, it echoes a broader philosophical clash between open innovation and proprietary protection – one that World IP Day seeks to address annually.
Aparna Watal, a leading trade marks expert and partner at Halfords IP, welcomes the Musk and Dorsey debate as it allows a re-examination of the assumptions that underpin the IP system, especially in light of how rapidly technology is reshaping the creative and commercial landscape.
"The problem isn't that we have IP laws, but that most of them were written when floppy disks were cutting-edge or well before then," Watal explains. "Of course they're creaking under the weight of the AI age. But deleting IP altogether? That's like saying we should get rid of banks because some charge too much interest," she adds.
"Yes, the system needs reform. But abolishing it outright would hand even more power to those who already dominate markets and data. And if innovation is supposed to come from everywhere, we need to protect the people trying to build something new, not just the ones who already made it."
The Dorsey-Musk commentary might strike a chord with the major players with ample backing, but for startups, small businesses, and independent creators, IP remains one of the few tools available to protect their value. Indigenous communities, in particular, face the threat of cultural expressions being replicated and commercialised faster than they can respond.
"As someone who hails from an Indigenous Kashmiri background, I've witnessed the slow erasure that happens when culture is 'appreciated' without understanding, consent, or credit," says Watal.
"Whether it's the anglicised name "Cashmere", traditional patterns repurposed as fashion trends, or sacred rituals used as Instagram backdrops – our stories are often taken, diluted, and sold back to us, stripped of meaning," she adds.
The AI era demands new rules
Creativity today is increasingly co-piloted by AI – not just in creative arts, but in how businesses build customer relationships. As AI reshapes how brands engage, design, and deliver, companies like Amperity and Eagle Eye are navigating how to foster innovation without letting IP fall by the wayside.
Billy Loizou, Area Vice President, APAC at Amperity, says AI is already stretching the boundaries of authorship and ownership.
"From generative models that compose music and draft marketing copy to machine learning systems that automate complex problem-solving, we're entering an era where IP isn't just human-made – it's machine-accelerated," says Loizou.
Amperity's patented identity resolution technology helps brands unify customer data, making it usable, trustworthy, and AI-ready. This not only powers better customer experiences but ensures companies have a clean, compliant foundation on which to build proprietary models and insights.
"Without clean, complete customer data, AI fails. We're solving that foundational challenge by ensuring brands have the IP infrastructure to support scalable, compliant, and secure innovation," he adds.
A new kind of IP: AI-generated content
In the loyalty and retail sector, Eagle Eye is using AI to generate promotional content tailored to individual customers. Its EagleAI engine turns transaction histories into targeted offers that hold real business value.
Where some tech providers blur the lines of authorship, Eagle Eye is leaning into clarity and transparency – a key counterpoint in the "delete IP" debate.
Jonathan Reeve, Vice President, APAC at Eagle Eye says many technology providers seek to claim partial rights to content generated by their systems, but Eagle Eye has taken a different approach.
"In terms of protection, it's a priority for Eagle Eye to ensure that all rights and ownership of IP created using our AI tools are clearly defined. For example, personalised content generated using AI in the EagleAI system is explicitly classified as the intellectual property of our clients, with no claims asserted by Eagle Eye as the AI provider," says Reeve.
Rethinking frameworks, not removing them
While the current system is under pressure, few experts believe a scorched-earth approach will help creators or businesses.
"The future of IP lies in recognising hybrid human-machine innovation," says Loizou.
"We need frameworks that reward invention without stifling progress—policies that accommodate iterative, data-driven creation and the ethical use of AI."
Both Amperity and Eagle Eye agree that change is necessary. Rather than abandoning IP, the focus should be on updating laws to reflect today's digital realities.
"We'd like to see greater international harmonisation of IP laws," says Reeve.
"Digital innovation doesn't recognise borders—our enforcement frameworks should reflect that reality."
IP in the data economy
As AI-powered business models rely more on customer data, the definition of IP itself is evolving.
"Companies are building IP not just through patents, but through proprietary data models, algorithms, and customer insights," says Loizou.
"For first-party data in particular, we expect clearer standards to emerge around consent, portability, and ownership of AI-derived outcomes."
For companies like Amperity and Eagle Eye, personalisation data is a differentiator. But only if it's handled with care, protected by policy, and owned ethically.
What World IP Day should remind us
This World IP Day, the call to "delete IP" may have captured headlines—but the more urgent conversation from experts is around reform. AI is changing the game, and the rules need to catch up.
Watal explains: "Let's embrace the debate. Let's call out what's broken. But let's also remember that IP is what allows the indie game developer to protect her code, the beauty brand founder to own his packaging, and the Indigenous artist to stop their work from becoming a Pinterest aesthetic."
"The future of IP is being shaped now. It's our job to make sure it evolves with technology, not against it," adds Reeve.
ABOUT
Aparna Watal, Partner, Halfords IP
Aparna Watal is a trade marks expert practising across Australia and New Zealand. She is a partner at Halfords IP, where she manages the firm's trade marks and domain names practice. She brings extensive experience in trade marks, domain name disputes, consumer law, and copyright. She is known for her practical, commercially focused approach and dedication to empowering clients in protecting their brand identities in dynamic markets.
About Jonathan Reeve, Vice President, APAC at Eagle Eye
Jonathan is a seasoned expert in retail, with nearly three decades of global experience that included being on the team that developed the operating model of Tesco.com. After successfully operating his own consulting business for five years and authoring the influential book, "Retail's Last Mile: Why Online Shopping Will Exceed Our Wildest Predictions", Jonathan is now the Vice President for the Asia Pacific region at Eagle Eye, a SaaS technology company transforming marketing through real-time personalised performance marketing.
About Billy Loizou, Area Vice President, APAC at Amperity
Billy Loizou has 15-plus years experience in design, technology and marketing. He has worked with some of the world's most renowned and respected brands, helping them improve their customer experience and drive profitability.
About Amperity
Amperity's Customer Data Cloud empowers brands to transform raw customer data into strategic business assets with unprecedented speed and accuracy. Through AI-powered identity resolution, customizable data models, and intelligent automation, Amperity helps technologists eliminate data bottlenecks and accelerate business impact. More than 400 leading brands worldwide, including Alaska Airlines, DICK'S Sporting Goods, BECU, Planet Fitness, and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, rely on Amperity to drive customer insights and revenue growth. Founded in 2016, Amperity operates globally with offices in Seattle, New York City, London, and Melbourne. For more information, visit amperity.com or follow us on LinkedIn, X, Facebook and Instagram.
About Eagle Eye
Eagle Eye is a leading SaaS and AI technology company enabling retail, travel and hospitality brands to earn the loyalty of their end customers by powering their real-time, omnichannel and personalised consumer marketing activities, at scale.
Eagle Eye AIR is a cloud-based platform, which provides the most flexible and scalable loyalty and promotions capability in the world. More than 850 million personalised offers are executed via the platform every week, and it currently hosts over 500 million loyalty member wallets for businesses all over the world. Eagle Eye is a certified member of the MACH Alliance and is trusted to deliver a secure service at hundreds of thousands of physical POS destinations worldwide, enabling the real-time issuance and redemption of promotional coupons, loyalty offers, gift cards, subscription benefits and more.
The Eagle Eye AIR platform is currently powering loyalty and customer engagement solutions for enterprise businesses all over the world, including Asda, Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose and John Lewis & Partners, JD Sports, Pret a Manger, Loblaws, Southeastern Grocers, Giant Eagle, and the Woolworths Group. In January 2024, Eagle Eye launched EagleAI, a next-generation data science solution for personalisation, already being used by leading retailers worldwide including Carrefour, Auchan and Pattison Food Group. Web: www.eagleeye.com