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Clifford Chance

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Legal insights for a digital age

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Artificial intelligence

China moves to further regulate artificial intelligence - what businesses should know

n 11 April 2023, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) published a consultation draft (the Administrative Measures for Generative Artificial Intelligence Services (the GenAI Measures)) to regulate the rapidly developing field of generative artificial intelligence (AI). This article highlights some key questions for businesses that are involved in the use or development of AI within or outside China.

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Energy

Betting on batteries: powering the clean energy transition

With increasing global demand for batteries to power the clean energy transition, the opportunities and risks are multiplying. New technology, new markets and new deals, including those associated with mineral extraction, human rights and the supply chain, regulatory changes and the race to find funding are giving rise to a number of issues for businesses to grapple with.

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Antitrust

New powers for the CMA to regulate digital markets and to enforce competition and consumer protection laws

The UK Government has published the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill. The legislation will introduce a new regulatory regime for digital markets to be enforced by the Digital Markets Unit (DMU) in the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), as well as giving the CMA new powers to impose large fines for breaches of consumer protection laws and making certain changes to competition laws.

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A green future: How the crypto asset sector can embrace ESG

We are delighted to have worked with leading payments platform Paysafe on an important new report on the key environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations for the cryptoasset industry, including recommendations for UK policymakers to drive change. In the report we also analyse consumer attitudes towards ESG issues based on research from SEC Newgate, look at current legal and regulatory ESG requirements in the UK and the EU and provide an overview of upcoming changes. 

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Fintech

The developing regulatory landscape for cryptoassets in the EU and UK

The regulatory landscape for cryptoassets is set to change in both the EU and the UK, through the introduction of new, comprehensive regulatory frameworks for cryptoasset service providers. The EU Markets in Cryptoassets Regulation (MiCA) is expected to be published in the EU Official Journal by Summer 2023 and will introduce a pan-EU regulatory framework for the issuance of, intermediating and dealing in, cryptoassets. The shape of the UK framework is still under consultation, though the UK is coming under some pressure to provide clarity on the scope of the new regime quickly, to provide firms with certainty they need and details of both regimes are yet to be fleshed out by regulators starting later this year.

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Intellectual Property

Birkin Battles – Hermes and Mason Rothschild square off over "Metabirkin" NFTs

This landmark case is one of the world's first to address intellectual property violations by digital creators of NFTs with artistic expression as a defense. It marks a victory for luxury brands that strive to safeguard their brand identity against third-party exploitation through the unauthorized creation of NFTs or other emerging technologies. The ruling may give some comfort to such brands by demonstrating that their intellectual property rights can be protected in the digital realm.

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Antitrust

CAT refuses to certify Facebook collective action in Gormsen v Meta

The application of Dr Lovdahl Gormsen, the Proposed Class Representative (PCR), to commence opt-out collective proceedings, should not be granted at this stage. The Tribunal found “issues with the methodology advanced by the Proposed Class Representative” and concluded that “[w]ithout significantly more articulation, there is no blueprint to trial.” The application has been stayed for the PCR to re-articulate its proposed blueprint for trial.

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Tech

The EU Chips Act, one year later

On 8 February 2022, the European Commission announced an ambitious package of measures to address chips shortages and revitalise the European semiconductor industry: the goal to bring European share in global chips sector from the current 9% to 20% by 2030. It is time to see, one year later, what happened with this plan.

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Data

Biden targets "Big Tech" in 2023 State of the Union - will it stick this time?

This is the second year in a row that U.S. President Joe Biden has addressed privacy and tech legislation, and even on its own, that is worth noting. Is this the year that federal privacy legislation and antitrust reforms, specifically targeting tech companies, comes to fruition?

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Real estate

Digital Twins: Legal Considerations

Demand for precise virtual modelling of real-world assets is gaining momentum, especially in the construction industry. What legal risks and challenges should companies expect to face? A digital twin is an exact virtual model of a real-world asset which enables interaction with that asset, be it a physical object (such as a building or jet engine), a system (such as a piece of computer networking architecture) or a process.

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Fintech

Italian government calls for new crypto assets tax treatment

The Italian Government published the bill of the Budget Law for 2023 envisaging the introduction of a set of rules for the taxation of crypto assets. As from they were first launched in 2009, cryptocurrencies and, more in general, crypto assets have not been the object of specific tax laws. Their tax treatment has been based on general principles and (heavily criticized) guidance issued by the tax authority.

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Intellectual Property

Stripe Wars: Inside the Thom Browne vs Adidas Trademark Case

We look at the decision of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, to find in favour of Thom Browne in this alleged trademark infringement case.

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Artificial intelligence

Trouble in the cockpit? Popular AI tool faces class action lawsuit

A class action against GitHub Copilot has been filed alleging violations of the rights, including copyright, of authors that have created or contributed to codebases stored as public repositories on GitHub.

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Latest Podcast

australia-tech-connectivity

LabChat: Blockchain in Asia Pacific (with Joanne Chuang, Jack Hardman and Marc Liew)

Create+65 Innovation Lead Joanne Chuang and Dubai Partner Jack Hardman talk to Marc Liew, Head of Ecosystem Development for APAC at R3, about some of the key developments in the blockchain space including whether the current state of the market still presents an opportunity for reflection and innovation, as well as Clifford Chance's collaboration with R3 through the Venture Development Programme.  

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Latest Webinar

Back to basics: How organisations can better leverage the value in their data

As part of techUK’s Data Strategy Series, we sat down to discuss: what is data; the value of first party data (data as an asset); data ethics; what is holding companies back in leveraging data effectively; the Uk's proposed new data regime. 

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Tech

Guide to Technology Disputes in Asia Pacific, 2nd Edition

The increasing reliance on technology and the novel legal questions raised by new technologies can give rise to complex disputes across multiple jurisdictions. In 2022, we saw an increasing number of tech disputes in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region focusing on cryptoassets, data breaches and the use of AI. We expect this trend to continue in 2023. In this Guide we will explore the issues that give rise to tech legal disputes.

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Data

The EU Data Act proposal: data access

The EU's proposed Data Act is intended to unlock the potential of the data economy in the era of cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT) (see our previous article: The EU Data Act proposal and its interaction with competition, privacy, and other recent EU regulations). The Data Act proposal seeks to achieve this through three pillars: (1) access to data, (2) interoperability and portability of data and (3) data sharing and pooling. We devote this second post to the first pillar: access to data.

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Intellectual Property

AI-Generated Music and Copyright

When a track by artist "Ghostwriter" was uploaded and then promptly removed from streaming services in April, it was the latest example of one of 2023's most astonishing trends. The track 'heart on my sleeve' sounded like it was sung by two of the world's biggest stars, Drake and The Weeknd. In fact, it was actually someone who had used an AI tool to make his voice sound like theirs

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Media & entertainment

Using "Influencers" in marketing

With influencers becoming an ever more useful tool to get to consumers, we look at the law regulating the use of influencers from a UK and German perspective

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Media & entertainment

Influencer Marketing: Advertising and Marketing on social media in the UK

How brands can suffer reputational damage

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Intellectual Property

Influencer marketing – key considerations for brand owners

The right influencers, the right audience, the right content and managing risk

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about-us-news

Who we are

We are one of the world's pre-eminent law firms, with significant depth and range of resources across five continents. Our Tech Group is a single global team delivering strategic tech law advice to help clients stay ahead of the curve and outstrip the pace of change.

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Talking Tech Newsletters

Fintech

Global Fintech Update

Our weekly global fintech round-up, summarises fintech regulatory developments that have happened around the world along with our Clifford Chance fintech publications and upcoming events

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Tech

Tech Policy Unit Horizon Scanner

The Tech Policy Unit Horizon Scanner is our monthly dive into the key tech policy and legislative developments around the world.

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ESG

Sustainability: ESG Developments

This monthly newsletter is intended to assist banks, financial investors and corporates in keeping up to date with ESG developments.

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Media & entertainment

The Advertising Brief

Our quarterly newsletter delivering concise summaries of the most interesting cases from the UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) with our key takeaways for all brand owners to be aware of

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Fintech

Global Crypto Round-Up

This monthly newsletter provides you with a monthly brief into the world of digital assets, keeping you up to date with regulatory developments, publications and events from across jurisdictions.

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Cyber

Stories from the Wild

This monthly newsletter will bring you the latest stories in information security and cybersecurity.

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Latest Events

Digital-services-600x400-1

Webinar: Tech, Talk & Lunch [In German]

The EU is currently creating a comprehensive legal framework, particularly in the areas of digital platforms, data economy and artificial intelligence.  Is your company sufficiently prepared? In our new online series "Tech, Talk & Lunch", specialists from our German Tech Group provide exclusive insights and show examples of where companies are likely to need to take action.

During our first event on 21 March 2023, Dr Michael Kümmel (Senior Associate, Tech/Digital) and Dr Nicolas Hohn-Hein (Senior Associate, IP/IT) will address compliance issues regarding the legally compliant use of artificial intelligence ("AI") in companies. Other dates will focus on the new European Unified Patent Court (April 25, 2023) and EU Health Data Spaces (June 13, 2023).

 

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