Artificial intelligence, intellectual property, and human rights: mapping the legal landscape in European health systems; npj Health Systems, November 25, 2025

 

Robin van Kessel, Jelena Schmidt, 

Hannah van Kolfschooten, 

Sam Feudo, 

Katie Young, 

Laura Valtere, 

Timo Minssen & 

Elias Mossialos 

, npj Health Systems ; Artificial intelligence, intellectual property, and human rights: mapping the legal landscape in European health systems

"Abstract

Intellectual property (IP) rights and IP-related rights, such as trade secrets and regulatory exclusivities, play a crucial role in the development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. However, possible interactions may be anticipated when comparing the legal relationships formed by these rights with those established by human rights. This study synthesises 53 laws and treaties illustrating the IP landscape for AI in health systems across Europe and examines their intersections with health-focused human rights. Our analysis reveals that a great variety of datasets, software, hardware, output, AI model architecture, data bases, and graphical user interfaces can be subject to IP protection. Although codified limitations and exceptions on IP and IP-related rights exist, interpretation of their conditions and scope permits for diverse interpretations and is left to the discretion of courts. Comparing these rights to health-focused human rights highlights tensions between promoting innovation and ensuring accessibility, quality, and equity in health systems, as well as between human rights ideals and the protection of European digital sovereignty. As these rights often pursue conflicting objectives and may involve trade-offs, future research should explore new ways to reconcile these objectives and foster solidarity in sharing the risks and benefits among stakeholders."

Colleen Walsh, Harvard Law Today; Holding the past accountable by making it visible

Harvard Law School Library’s Paul Deschner discusses the decades-long effort to make the full archive of Nuremberg Trials records available online

"“The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored.” So said United States Supreme Court Justice and U.S. Chief of Counsel to the International Military Tribunal, Robert H. Jackson, during his opening statement for the prosecution at the first of 13 Nuremberg Trials, which began 80 years ago, on Nov. 20, 1945.

For decades, the Harvard Law School Library has been working to make the nearly complete set of Nuremberg Trials records publicly available online. It launched the first version of Harvard’s Nuremberg Trials Project website in 2003, but until recently only roughly 20 percent of the Law School’s trove of Nuremberg materials had been accessible to online visitors. Today, the full collection of 140,000 documents comprising more than 700,000 pages is live and searchable by anyone around the globe.

Harvard Law School Library’s Paul Deschner, who has helped guide the project almost since its inception, spoke with Harvard Law Today about the scope of the archive and what it took to bring the entire collection online."

The Public Interest; American Libraries Magazine, January 23, 2022

Sallyann Price , American Libraries Magazine ; The Public Interest

What does “public” mean in 2022?

"Merriam-Webster defines “public” as an adjective describing something “of, relating to, or affecting all or most of the people of a country, state, etcetera.” But as both academic and municipal libraries work to make their buildings, programming, and collections accessible to all patrons, they’re considering exactly what it means to be a public-serving institution.

What are the obligations of a public or private university to its local and global community? How have public libraries extended a sense of welcome to their patrons while safeguarding their rarest and most special collections? A panel of two public librarians and one academic librarian (moderated by architect Sindu Meier) discussed these questions during the “Curating for Inclusion” session at ALA’s LibLearnX virtual conference on January 23."

Hunters Point Library Confronts Accessibility Issues; Library Journal, November 4, 2019

Lisa Peet, Library Journal; Hunters Point Library Confronts Accessibility Issues

"QPL is assessing the situation with the Department of Design and Construction and Steven Holl Architects, de Bourbon said. (As of press time, Steven Holl Architects had not responded to LJ’s request for comment.) “As we move forward with new projects,” she said, “we will be even more proactive in addressing the needs and circumstances of every single customer.”

“I hope that libraries who are working on inclusiveness can see this as a cautionary tale,” said Machones. “There clearly needs to be more oversight in all stages of planning to ensure nothing like this happens again. There needs to be opportunities for staff and the community to analyze and respond to plans at every stage. If there are members of your community that are not able to participate in input sessions, then go to them and ask them for their input. Your library will better serve the community if your plans reflect everyone in it.”

Such inclusive input might be positioned as a mandate in all aspects of service for the library, Machones suggested. “I would have regular community conversations to learn about what ways the library could improve. I also would recommend the library undergo an inclusive services assessment,” such as the Inclusive Services Assessment and Guide developed for Wisconsin Public Libraries."

Food delivery robots from Starship Technologies are coming to Pitt’s Oakland campus; Nextpittsburgh, September 3, 2019

Bill O'Toole, Nextpittsburgh; Food delivery robots from Starship Technologies are coming to Pitt’s Oakland campus

"Stakeholders got their first look at the project last week when the Oakland Planning and Development Corporation (OPDC) held a public meeting where Starship gave a presentation on the project.

The university has confirmed to us that Starship’s service is due to launch later this fall, but the company declined to offer further specifics about the project to NEXTpittsburgh. According to the minutes of the meeting, they plan to begin a staged rollout in mid-September. The fleet will eventually have 25 autonomous rovers carting goods (presumably to hungry students) from campus food vendors such as Forbes Street Market...

The food delivery service poses obvious practical challenges for the flow of traffic and people throughout the bustling neighborhood. According to the minutes of the public meeting, several attendees expressed concerns over the potential for traffic and bicycle accidents.

“It’ll be interesting to see how they interface with people there in the public right of ways,” says Georgia Petropoulos, executive director of the Oakland Business Improvement District, which has no formal role in the project."

'Access+Ability' exhibit showcases designs for, and by, those with disabilities; CNN, February 21, 2018

Erin Gabriel, CNN; 'Access+Ability' exhibit showcases designs for, and by, those with disabilities

"Eye-catching objects designed for, and by, people with physical and other disabilities are the focus of the current "Access+Ability" exhibition in New York.

More than 70 exhibits, including colorful prosthetic leg covers and jeweled earrings that are also hearing aids, are featured as examples of "inclusive design" at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

"There has been a surge of design with and by people with a wide range of physical, cognitive, and sensory abilities," according to the museum's website.

The new exhibit -- like the museum itself -- aims to reflect that trend. "This year Cooper Hewitt embarked on a very ambitious initiative about accessibility, about making our campus, our program, who we are, much more accessible and it seemed like the perfect moment to do the exhibition 'Access + Ability,' " said Cara McCarty, the museum's curatorial director."

Mark Zuckerberg accused of abusing power after row over 'napalm girl' photo; Guardian, 9/8/16

Julia Carrie Wong, Guardian; Mark Zuckerberg accused of abusing power after row over 'napalm girl' photo:

"Norway’s largest newspaper has published a front-page open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, lambasting the company’s decision to censor a historic photograph of the Vietnam war and calling on Zuckerberg to recognize and live up to his role as “the world’s most powerful editor”.

Espen Egil Hansen, the editor-in-chief and CEO of Aftenposten, accused Zuckerberg of thoughtlessly “abusing your power” over the social media site that has become a lynchpin of the distribution of news and information around the world, writing, “I am upset, disappointed – well, in fact even afraid – of what you are about to do to a mainstay of our democratic society.”...

“While we recognize that this photo is iconic, it’s difficult to create a distinction between allowing a photograph of a nude child in one instance and not others,” a spokesman for Facebook said in response to queries from the Guardian.

“We try to find the right balance between enabling people to express themselves while maintaining a safe and respectful experience for our global community. Our solutions won’t always be perfect, but we will continue to try to improve our policies and the ways in which we apply them.”"

Online Classes Appeal More to the Affluent; New York Times, 12/4/15

Sindya N. Bhanoo, New York Times; Online Classes Appeal More to the Affluent:

"In a study published in the journal Science, Mr. Hansen and his colleagues reported that people living in more affluent neighborhoods were more likely to register and complete MOOCs. Each increase of $20,000 in neighborhood median income raised the odds of participation in a MOOC by 27 percent, the researchers found.

Yet the vast majority of MOOC participants are not the very affluent, who are comparatively small in number. Mr. Hansen said that it ought to be possible to adapt or redesign online courses so that they are more appealing and accessible to lower-income people.

“Just because it is free and available online, it does not necessarily mean that the chief beneficiaries or users are going to be the less advantaged,” Mr. Hansen said."

Justices’ Opinions Grow in Size, Accessibility and Testiness, Study Finds; New York Times, 5/4/15

Adam Liptak, New York Times; Justices’ Opinions Grow in Size, Accessibility and Testiness, Study Finds:

"The court used to be a more decorous institution. A new computer analysis of about 25,000 Supreme Court opinions from 1791 to 2008 identified three trends that have transformed the court’s tone. The justices’ opinions, the study found, have become longer, easier to understand — and grumpier.

The judicial-ethics decision was a good example of all three trends. It was simultaneously sprawling, accessible and testy...

The new study, to be published next year in the Washington University Law Review, is the work of Daniel Rockmore and Keith Carlson, computer scientists at Dartmouth College, and Michael A. Livermore, a law professor at the University of Virginia. It is part of a cottage industry of quantitative analysis of Supreme Court opinions using linguistic software.

The era of big data has yielded some uncontroversial findings about the Supreme Court."