Weekly IP Buzz for the Week Ending November 27, 2020
In this week's post, we see how Article 22 of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation is being tested in a big way by a new lawsuit brought against Uber.
Plus, an overview of copyright assignment.
Uber Faces High-Profile Lawsuit: GDPR Article 22 and Algorithms for Terminations
The use of algorithms to make decisions has become increasingly prevalent in today’s fast-paced, technology-driven world. From ranking a user’s visibility on social media platforms to calculating grades on tests, the use of these automated processes and formulas have become commonplace, although they often remain behind-the-scenes. This might change, however, with a recent lawsuit brought under Article 22 of the European’s Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) against Uber.
Article 22 of the GDPR states that subjects have a right to not be subject to a “decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects” that significantly affects the said subject. In this case, over a thousand Uber drivers are claiming that they were unfairly terminated by Uber, which used an automated algorithm to do so, and when the terminated drivers requested the reasoning behind their terminations, Uber refused to provide such information. As a result, the terminated drivers are suing, claiming that, under the GDPR, companies must provide legal grounds when they use such methods, and that they must give drivers the ability to object to the automated decision, which Uber has not done.
Read the full article here.
Copyright Assignment
A holder of a copyright may transfer all or a portion of their rights in the original work to a third-party. There are various exclusive rights that copyright owners have, which include, but are not limited to: the rights to reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords; prepare derivative works, distribute phonorecords, and the rights to publicly display and perform the original work. Further, it is almost always required to be in writing between the parties.
Read more here.
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In addition to publishing Thriving Attorney, Darin M. Klemchuk is founder of Klemchuk LLP, a litigation, intellectual property, and transactional law firm located in Dallas, Texas. Click to read more about Darin Klemchuk's practice as an intellectual property lawyer as well as IP mediation services. For more on the latest developments in IP law, see Ideate blog and IP Questions Answered blog.