The IP Legislation That Shaped 2025 and Prospects for the New Year
The article reviews the IP bills and policy moves that, in the author’s view, most shaped 2025 and are likely to dominate 2026. It groups them into three fronts: federal AI legislation plus possible federal override of state AI rules, copyright accountability and media integrity measures responding to generative AI, and a renewed push for patent eligibility and PTAB reform.
On AI, it highlights several federal proposals and one major enacted law. It points to the TAKE IT DOWN Act, signed in May 2025, which criminalizes nonconsensual intimate visual imagery including deepfakes and sets a rapid platform takedown expectation, creating operational obligations that sit alongside DMCA style processes. It also discusses AI related provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026, including requirements around AI testing standards and secure environments in intelligence settings, and disclosure expectations that could pressure trade secret and contracting strategies for companies working with government. It then surveys bills such as the SandBox Act and CREATE AI Act, framing them as efforts to expand AI infrastructure and shared research resources while complicating issues like inventorship, confidentiality, and Bayh Dole obligations.
