The intellectual property road to the knowledge economy: remarks on the readiness of the UAE Copyright Act to drive AI innovation

Copyright law in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has the capacity to address the challenges associated with artificial intelligence (AI)-generated literary, artistic and scientific works. Under UAE copyright law, AI-generated works may qualify as copyright subject matter despite the non-human nature of both the expressions and the innovative character they embody. Also, users of the AI systems generating works may qualify as the authors of these works and, in most cases, bear the responsibility for their copyright infringing activities. These conclusions rely on: (1) the premise that the notions of ‘work’ and ‘author’ for the purpose of copyright law are legal constructs, impacted by both socio-economic and technological factors; (2) the wording of the UAE Copyright Act, reflecting an underlying reconciliation between the economic and moral dimensions of copyright; (3) the potential utility of the UAE Copyright Act’s notion of ‘collective works’, which echoes the work-for-hire doctrine in other national copyright laws; and (4) the overarching knowledge economy-oriented policy in the UAE.