<IP Practice Online> “Generative AI and intellectual property rights, etc.” (Attorney Taichi Kakinuma)
Updated: Oct 9
Article information
Content type: Lectures and videos
Categories: Copyright
Issues: Generative AI / Copyright limitations / Copyright infringement
First published on this site: 2026-10-03
Display and classification checked: 2026-10-03
<IP Practice Online> “Generative AI and intellectual property rights, etc.” (Attorney Taichi Kakinuma)
1. “Development/training” and “generation/use” stages
Legal examination of generative AI and copyright requires clearly distinguishing two phases: the “development/training stage,” in which AI takes in data to build a model, and the “generation/use stage,” in which users enter prompts and obtain outputs.
2. Copyright law at the development/training stage (Article 30-4)
• Principle (lawful)
Under Article 30-4 of Japan's Copyright Act, works may generally be collected and used for training without the copyright holder's permission for “non-enjoyment purposes,” such as machine information analysis, rather than purposes such as enjoying works by viewing or listening.
• Exception (potential infringement)
If there is an “enjoyment purpose,” such as targeting a particular creator's works to “output their expression unchanged (reflect it in outputs for human enjoyment/use),” the statutory exception does not apply and copyright infringement may arise under the general rule, as with intentional overfitting.
3. Assessment at the generation/use stage and “technical measures”
• Outputs do not immediately establish past unlawful training
Even if an output happens to contain expression common to a work used in training (similarity), the mere fact that a similar output was produced normally does not immediately permit an inference that an enjoyment purpose existed at the earlier development/training stage (= the training itself was unlawful).
• Importance of technical measures to prevent infringement
Whether AI developers and service providers take restrictive technical measures (safeguards such as filters and guardrails) to prevent infringing outputs similar to existing works is important.
Such measures strongly support an argument that there was no enjoyment purpose (intent to infringe) at the development stage.
4. Risk management and responses in corporate practice
• Risks of pirated data
Knowingly using illegally uploaded pirated material (infringing content) as training data presents very high practical legal risks.
• Internal governance
Operations attentive to compliance, including implementation of technical measures and internal guidelines, are required.
Original article: https://lnkd.in/gmx9y6bF
Original source shown in the LinkedIn preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRu-6HkTZMc
Originally posted on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7511584212307582976/
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Update and correction history
Dated entries are added for corrections, supplements, classification, display, and related-article changes, separately from the first publication date.
2026-10-03: First publication on this site from the LinkedIn original.
2026-10-03: Updated issue tags.
Consultation guide by purpose: https://www.takaishihideki.com/en/single-post/consultation-guide-en
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