Intellectual Rights 25, volume III

This article seeks to establish the relationship between intellectual property and the environment, in a world like today, where compa­nies are required to act with social responsibility, respect human rights and promote corporate sustainability initiatives. To achieve this end, the authors analyze the role of various international or­ganizations and present several initiatives that have recently been developed in the world to successfully consolidate the so-called “green” intellectual property.

Civil liability can be an effective tool in the fight against public lim­ited companies that engage in or participate in activities related to the falsification of brands of products or services. In addition, it is possible that a director or manager is jointly and severally liable with the corporation for damages caused by having committed or facilitated a crime or trademark infringement.

The Beijing Treaty, formally known as the “Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances” (BTAP), was adopted on June 24, 2012, by the Diplomat­ic Conference on the Protection of Audiovisual Performances, which took place in Beijing, China. The Beijing Treaty is part of the Treaties administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), whose main purpose is to recognize, for the first time, a minimum set of intellectual property rights of performers, regarding their au­diovisual performances, putting end to the unprotected international situation, which they had been facing for years.

With the rapid development of computers, artificial intelligence has been gaining strength and has gradually reached the climax of the un­imaginable. It is essential to protect all creations around these inven­tions through intellectual property to facilitate that all possible “chang­es, applications and improvements” lead us to infinity.

Personal data is a highly sought-after asset on the market. Its indiscriminate treatment gave rise to the right to the protection of personal data, as part of the right to privacy.

The main powers of the owner of personal data are to grant consent for their use, know them and control them. Personal data is usually contained in data­bases that, if they are original, are protected by copyright. This right does not extend to the information or data contained in the database.

The exercise of copyright on databases should not be confronted with other fundamental rights. European jurisprudence has preferred that the copyright owner cannot exercise his right if this affects the rights of third parties, espe­cially the rights over personal data.

The author of this essay argues that harmony should be sought among all rights holders and especially that the owners of the databases should seek mechanisms to obtain third party consent, when applicable.

In light of the recent reforms to the industrial property law in Mexico, the author analyzes the issue of acquired distinctive­ness in traditional and non-traditional brands. It makes an anal­ysis of the regulation of the matter in the United States, Latin America and Europe, and proposes some mechanisms to facil­itate its application.

The issue of creations generated through Artificial Intelligence (AI) programs is discussed. Should robots be treated as authors or do creations belong to the people who created them? The creation of works through AI programs could have a profound impact on copyright, as we know it today, what treatment could be given to the economic rights of a work originating from AI? We could even ask ourselves if the current legislation –in one way or another– could address the new technological revolu­tion that AI brings, or if a modification should be considered that adjusts to the changing reality that we live in.