Korea Intellectual Property Office hosts forum on AI data rights

The Korea Intellectual Property Office held its second Intellectual Property Strategy Forum on Wednesday at the Chosun Palace Hotel in Seoul, focusing on determining rights ownership and establishing fair compensation frameworks for data essential to training AI systems. The event, organized jointly with the National Academy of Engineering of Korea, drew approximately 80 attendees including corporate executives, engineering scholars, and legal experts to address the rapid expansion of AI adoption in industrial settings.

Cho Seok-ju, head of the AX Convergence Research Institute at Posco DX, highlighted disputes over who owns AI models created by combining client data with developer technology. He raised concerns regarding the protection of skilled workers whose operational know-how is increasingly encoded into algorithms, as well as the legal status of synthetic data generated within virtual factories.

Shin Soo-yong, head of the Advanced Technology Research Institute at Kakao Healthcare, outlined how his company navigates contracts to define data creators among patients, medical institutions and software developers. His presentation detailed cases involving multi-party medical data generation and the necessity of securing usage agreements.

A panel discussion moderated by Sung Yoon-mo, former minister of trade and industry, featured legal and consulting experts debating strategies for protecting trade secrets while fostering innovation. Participants included Kang Tae-wook from Law Firm Taepyung, Kim Soo-yeon from Deloitte Consulting, Professor Choi Kyung-jin from Gachon University and Kim Il-gyu, a bureau director at the Korea Intellectual Property Office, who discussed contributor compensation and data protection mechanisms.

Yoon Eui-joon, president of the National Academy of Engineering of Korea, emphasized that successful industrial transformation requires balancing technological advancement with robust data governance. "For the great transition of AI in industrial sites, utilizing and protecting data is just as important as technology development," he said. "We will gather experiences from the engineering and industrial sectors to help find effective solutions."

Kim Yong-seon, commissioner of the Korea Intellectual Property Office, stated that tacit knowledge on factory floors constitutes vital intellectual property underpinning national AI competitiveness. "We will clarify rights relationships surrounding data and AI models and improve the intellectual property system so that proper compensation can be achieved," he said.