Calfee Connections

Calfee Intellectual Property Partner Bradley S. Pulfer spoke with in-house counsel on how they are approaching branding a company’s AI and using AI in corporate decision-making situations. The discussion focused on ensuring accuracy in marketing and branding AI tools to safeguarding critical aspects of human decision-making.

Watch the full video.

Recording from Calfee’s November 2024 CLE seminar, "Securing the Future: AI, Data Privacy, and Cybersecurity for Businesses," hosted by the Intellectual Property Practice Group, Columbus, Ohio.

Video Transcript

Question on screen: What are the in-house legal department considerations in branding their company’s AI?

Georgia Yanchar:

We kind of decided on a trademark for all of our things that have AI built into them. We decided on MRI Agora because it kind of has this idea of bringing everything together, and Agora is a meeting place. So, we kind of gave it a name just like IBM has Watson, like it's got Watson, you know what I mean? We decided to kind of give it a new name and go with that.

But one thing we've realized we need to be really careful about the FTC is looking for instances where you're overstating your AI capabilities. It's like, what the heck is AI? Are we just automating things? Is it really that different than what we've always been doing?

But you have to be really careful as you're marketing things to not overstate the amount of AI and to make it really clear, for me, especially when you're making decisions about, for example, screening renters and letting them live in the building or not. That needs to be a human decision.

You do not want to be overly delegating decisions that need to be made by a human to a machine. And you try to, on the one hand, as a marketing person, say, “It's AI, it's going to be really fast.” But on the other hand, you don't want to be AI-washing and overstating your AI capabilities or suggesting you're doing something that's going to result in a bad thing for a human at the end of the day.

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Series:

1. AI Considerations for Corporate Legal Departments Video Series (Part One): How Are Companies Interacting With Emerging Technologies Like AI?
2. AI Considerations for Corporate Legal Departments Video Series (Part Two): What Are the In-House Legal Department Considerations in Branding Their Company's AI?
3. AI Considerations for Corporate Legal Departments (Part Three): What Are the Corporate Legal Department Considerations for Policies Related to Implementing Generative AI?
4. AI Considerations for Corporate Legal Departments Video Series (Part Four): How Are Corporate Legal Departments Balancing Customer Demand and Risk Considerations Related to AI-Enhanced Technologies?
5. AI Considerations for Corporate Legal Departments Video Series (Part Five): How Can In-House Legal Counsel Partner With Their Business Units to Support Innovation While Still Addressing Compliance, Ethics and Other Concerns?
6. AI Considerations for Corporate Legal Departments Video Series (Part Six): What Are Companies Doing to Adjust for the Regulatory Landscape in the AI Space?
7. AI Considerations for Corporate Legal Departments Video Series (Part Seven): How Can Companies Leverage These Emerging Technologies to Improve Legal Operations?

Calfee has one of the largest Intellectual Property and Information Technology practices within a general practice firm in the Midwest. Of the 40+ skilled attorneys, patent agents, and paralegals in Calfee's Intellectual Property practice, more than 30 are registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Calfee has nearly 25,000 active patents and trademarks on its dockets, more than 15,000 of which are international. The IP team has handled filings in 190+ countries and has broad experience and a deep bench in prosecution, litigation, opinions, IP business strategy, and counseling.

Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP is a full-service corporate law firm with 160 attorneys and professionals in five offices in Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Washington, D.C. Calfee serves clients in the Midwest, nationally and globally in the areas of Corporate and Finance, Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation, Energy and Utilities, Estate and Succession Planning and Administration, Government Relations and Legislation, Intellectual Property, Investment Management Law, Labor and Employment, Litigation, and Real Estate Law. Calfee has been recognized as a leading law firm by Chambers USA 2025 in Antitrust, Banking & Finance, Construction, Corporate/M&A, Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation, Energy & Natural Resources, Environment, Government Relations, Insurance, Intellectual Property, Investment Funds: Regulatory & Compliance, Labor & Employment, Litigation: General Commercial, Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations, and Real Estate, and by Chambers HNW 2025 in Private Wealth Law. A founding member of Lex Mundi, Calfee offers international representation through a network of independent law firms with access to 22,000 attorneys located in more than 125 countries. Additional information is available at Calfee.com.