Many readers may have seen the recent news that the New York Times had sued Microsoft and OpenAI alleging that OpenAI’s use of New York Times content to train their AI tool’s database infringed the newspaper’s copyright. The lawsuit raises its own set of issues but lawsuits of this type relating to AI development also pose an interesting set of insurance coverage related issues. In the following guest post, Sarah Abrams, Head of Professional Liability Claims at Bowhead Specialty, takes a look at the insurance questions that these kinds of lawsuits present. The views of the author are her own and not necessarily that of Bowhead Specialty Underwriters. I would like to thank Sarah for allowing me to publish her article on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Sarah’s article.Continue Reading Guest Post: Can There Be “Misappropriation of Trade Secret[s]” in the Age of AI?’
A standard D&O insurance policy provision specifies that the term “Claim” means, in part, a “written demand for monetary damages or non-monetary relief.” A recurring question that arises under this language is: what exactly is “non-monetary relief”? In a recent case, an Ohio intermediate appellate court considered the question whether a demand for a software audit from a software industry group alleging unauthorized software copying constituted a written demand for non-monetary relief; the court concluded that it did and that it therefore that the demand represented a claim under the applicable D&O policy. The court also considered the applicability of the policy intellectual property (IP) infringement exclusion. A copy of the Ohio Court of Appeals, Third Appellate District’s October 11, 2016 opinion can be found