Congress to Limit Intellectual Property
Derived from Artificial Intelligence
A House panel is trying to get its hands around the slippery issue of when inventions or artistic works developed with artificial intelligence should receive intellectual property rights.
Intellectual property normally refers to patents for inventions or copyrights for literary, musical or artistic compositions. It gives the owners exclusive rights to earn money from their original and creative designs.
In the past few years, applicants for intellectual property protection from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office have been using artificial intelligence to generate what they claim as their own innovations.
“AI cannot be listed as an inventor on a patent,” said Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga. “It cannot own a copyright.”
The Patent and Trademark office put out policy guidances in recent months explaining that it will not grant intellectual property rights for designs generated by artificial intelligence. The guidances have not put an end to the applications.
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Supreme Court Divided on Law
For Prosecuting Jan. 6 Rioters
A divided Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday on whether to throw out criminal charges of obstructing an official proceeding against Jan. 6 defendants, including Donald Trump.
About 350 persons who invaded the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection have been charged or convicted under the law.
Attorneys for one of them argued prosecutors applied the charge incorrectly because it was based on a law passed by Congress as a response to the 2001 Enron Corp. financial accounting scandal.
The law was intended to punish corporate executives who try to protect themselves during government investigations by destroying evidence. Enron executives shredded potentially incriminating documents.
The Jan. 6 defendants are accused of breaking into the Capitol to help former President Trump overturn the 2020 presidential election by interrupting Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote.
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Virginia Elementary School Administrator
Indicted After Child Shoots a Teacher
A Virginia elementary school’s former assistant principal is facing child abuse charges after a 6-year-old student shot his teacher last year.
Ebony Parker also is named in a lawsuit filed by the teacher as one of the school administrators who ignored warnings from staff members and students that the child had a handgun.
Parker resigned from the Newport News Public Schools after the lawsuit by teacher Abigail Zwerner was filed. The Jan. 6, 2023 shooting at Richneck Elementary School was one of several gun incidents in the school district.
The bullet fired by the child pierced Zwerner’s hand before lodging in her upper chest. She escorted her class to safety after she was shot.
Court records unsealed last week show Parker was indicted by a grand jury on eight counts of child abuse. She faces as much as five years in prison on each count.
Zwerner’s attorneys say Parker should have called the police after being told by at least one teacher a 6-year-old boy had a gun. The teacher was told by a student that the boy pulled the gun out of his pocket on the playground.
The teacher asked permission to search the boy but Parker said no, according to Zwerner’s attorneys.
Her lawsuit claims $40 million in damages. Prosecutors are declining to pursue criminal charges against the child shooter because of his age.
Zwerner’s attorneys welcomed the indictment against the assistant principal, saying in a statement, “These charges are very serious and underscore the failure of the school district to act to prevent the tragic shooting of Abby Zwerner. The school board continues to deny their responsibility to Abby..."
U.S. Office of Special Counsel Warns
Federal Agencies about Gag Orders
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel sent an advisory this month to federal agencies warning them to be careful about trying to squelch employees’ right to complain about workplace issues.
The advisory follows incidents in which supervisors overstepped their authority to enforce non-disclosure agreements on employees.
The non-disclosure agreements – sometimes called gag orders – are supposed to protect private government information, such as about pending legal matters or national security.
Despite the agreements, “Federal employees maintain certain constitutional and statutory ‘free speech’ rights as a result of court decisions and congressional enactments,” the Office of Special Counsel advisory says. It includes a video explaining employee rights.
The free speech rights are described in the anti‐gag order provision of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act.
The Act approved by Congress in 2012 is supposed to strengthen protections for federal employees who disclose evidence of government waste, fraud, or abuse.
Excluding uniformed military, about 65 percent of federal government workers are subject to non-disclosure agreements.
Their whistleblower allegations in recent years accused the Trump administration of trying to use the Justice Department to prosecute its critics and the Biden administration of covering up financial misdeeds of presidential son Hunter Biden.
In the past year, the Office of Special Counsel reported 25 incidents in which it felt compelled to override supervisors’ efforts to silence or reprimand employees.
In one of them, the Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review notified immigration judges of a policy on speaking engagements that did not include the anti-gag order language. Two judges with speaking engagements were sent messages they perceived as a gag order.
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Journalists Tell Congress Federal Law
Needed to Protect Confidential Sources
Former CBS television investigative reporter Catherine Herridge told a congressional panel last week about how reprisals she endured for her reports demonstrate a need for a federal law to protect journalists’ news gathering.
Herridge refused a Washington, D.C., court order in February to reveal her sources for a story about a Chinese American scientist and college administrator investigated by the FBI as a possible Chinese spy.
The judge overseeing a lawsuit filed by scientist Yanping Chen fined Herridge $800 a day for contempt of court. Days earlier, CBS News fired her and locked her out of their building.
Although the fines are stayed pending appeal, Herridge told a House Judiciary subcommittee the incident shows the shortcomings of a legal and political system that can override First Amendment protections of a free press.
“I feel we’re in a very dangerous place as journalists,” Herridge said.