This episode of Tech Talks outlines why intercompany licensing—clear ownership, licensees, and exclusive rights—is vital for operations and litigation standing. It flags exit tax and transfer pricing exposure tied to DEMPE functions and valuation disputes, which can cause double taxation without strong documentation. Mayer Brown partners Jim Ferguson and Jason Osborn, along with host Julian Dibbell, review enforcement nuances for patents, trade secrets, trademarks, and copyrights, and the need to update employment agreements to assign future inventions to the right affiliate. Their takeaway: align structures with business reality and coordinate IP and tax teams early.

As companies expand global operations, they are forced to navigate a patchwork of local IP laws, data and artificial intelligence (AI) regulations, and ever-shifting geopolitical tensions. Without sufficient diligence, planning, and contracting, companies can fall victim to IP leakage, downstream disputes, data protection and export control problems, and impediments to innovation. In this episode, Mayer Brown partners discuss key IP issues that arise in global outsourcing and cross-border technology transactions and offers practical recommendations for structuring deals that safeguard innovation.

As generative AI transforms the way businesses operate, understanding copyright risks has never been more critical. In this episode, host Julian Dibbell sits down with Rich Assmus and Brian Nolan, partners in our Intellectual Property practice, to unpack the U.S. Copyright Office's latest report on generative AI and copyright law. They dive into the high-stakes legal questions surrounding the use of copyrighted content to train AI models, including hot-button issues like model weights and retrieval-augmented generation. They also discuss how courts may apply the fair use doctrine to generative AI, with a close look at transformativeness, market impact, and other key factors.