Mayer Brown Preview: Technology, Privacy, Cybersecurity & IP (Europe And The US)

A look at the year ahead compiled by a group of Mayer Brown attorneys, many of them from the firm’s London office. The focus is on developments in the UK and Europe, but much or all of what’s covered will bear directly on U.S. companies. A section on data privacy and cybersecurity discusses the status of so-called “adequacy decisions” (defined by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office as “a formal decision made by the EU which recognises that another country, territory, sector or international organisation provides an equivalent level of protection for personal data as the EU does”) vis a vis the UK and the US, and between the EU and the US.  The writers suggest that 2023 may be the year in which agreement in this area will be reached, thus enabling the free – or free-er – flow of data among the parties.

The section that discusses the UK’s awkwardly titled  “Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill,” which the authors refer to more pointedly as the “Brexit bonfire,” is a reminder that Brexit is less an event than it is a massive ongoing policy and governance project. UK prime minister Rishi Sunak, the post notes, has announced that “a new Brexit Delivery Unit would be ‘reviewing every EU law on our statute book.’”

With regard to cybersecurity, the authors say that 2023 will likely see legislation that elevates cybersecurity and information communications technology risk management “to the board level,” in a way that holds management bodies responsible for compliance and training, and accountable for failures. The section about intellectual property includes discussion of an issue rarely addressed: the part that valuable IP assets may play in an insolvency proceeding.

Also discussed: the imminent activation of the Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court (“UPC”), a forum that is said to enable patent protection and IP dispute settlement across Europe, and in the UK a possible copyright and database exception that would permit text and data mining. If implemented, the authors say, this exception “will be well-received by the wide pool of stakeholders benefiting from text and data mining, which includes developers of AI and research institutions.” -Today’s General Counsel/DR