In this special video episode of Venable's podcast, AI and IP: The Legal Frontier, Justin Pierce, host and co-chair of the firm's Intellectual Property Division, spoke with Jason Yao, a partner at China's Wanhuida law firm, and Toby Bond, a partner at UK firm Bird and Bird, about how AI is testing IP law across borders.
Each jurisdiction is taking a different approach to copyright, training data, and regulation. China appears increasingly open to protecting AI-generated outputs when there is meaningful human input, while the UK and EU remain focused on originality and human authorship, and the U.S. continues to center its analysis on human contribution and fair use.
The guests also highlighted growing legal uncertainty around AI training data and agentic AI, especially as autonomous systems create new questions about ownership, liability, and evidence of human involvement.
Their main takeaway: Companies should invest in strong AI governance, employee education, documentation, and technical guardrails so they can innovate while managing legal risk.