Matt Moffa and Erin Earl wrote an article for the Transatlantic Law Journal titled, “IP, IT and Data in 2025: From Ferraris and Birks to AI.”
Introduction
The year 2025 marked an inflection point for the legal architecture governing intellectual property (“IP”), IT, and data, as courts and regulators in the European Union, Germany, and the United States sharpened rules, expanded jurisdictional reach, and began stress-testing ambitious digital frameworks in practice. Against the backdrop of generative AI’s rapid deployment, courts refined doctrinal boundaries in trademark, copyright, design, and patent law, while the Unified Patent Court (“UPC”) cemented its appeal for cross-border disputes and EU courts clarified their capacity to adjudicate infringement actions touching foreign rights. Legislators moved from enactment to implementation – the EU on the AI Act and Data Act and the U. S. through a mosaic of state statutes and federal executive direction. Cybersecurity obligations also intensified, with the NIS2-Directive and the Digital Operational Resilience Act (“DORA”) reshaping EU requirements and U. S. measures adding safeguards for financial institutions, health care, and child-directed services. This article distills the most consequential 2025 developments for transatlantic practitioners, highlighting convergence, fragmentation, and implications for litigation, compliance, and strategy in the year ahead.
Written by: Benedikt Burger, Jan Hinrichs, Matthew J. Moffa, and Erin K. Earl
