Dewdney William Drew contributes to Law360's Practice Leader Insights series

The Law360 Practice Leader Insights series spotlights leading lawyers and practice group leaders who share their thoughts on legal trends, difficult cases, and what it takes to make a mark in the legal sector. 

Dewdney William Drew, Head of Brand Protection in our Intellectual Property team, is featured in the latest of these Law360 Practice Leader Insight profiles.

He discusses the challenges of working on a firm's rebrand under time pressure, how the process to simplify U.K. design protection is under way, and why lawyers need to harness the power of artificial intelligence.

See a snippet of his feature below:

Q - What laws and regulations are in need of reform?

Simplification of the design protection regime in the U.K. is long overdue, and fortunately the process is now finally underway. The recent consultation states the estimate that up to 92% of U.K. design businesses are microbusinesses, namely those with fewer than nine employees. Such small businesses need simple and intuitive legal frameworks and the current regime is anything but that.

"Interestingly, the current consultation favors removing existing protection for computer-generated designs without a human author. This would be a prudent step not only to protect human designers, but also to prevent the field of potential designs being crowded out by junk generated by artificial intelligence.

Q - What important trends and developments are you tracking?

It's trite to say AI, but our response to this phenomenon is the interesting part. I see two extremes: lawyers who rely on it too much and those who have developed a prejudice against it. AI is here to stay and we need to harness its power.

Read the full article in Law360 here (subscription required).