5 ASIAN LEGAL BUSINESS – INDIA E-MAGAZINE WWW.LEGALBUSINESSONLINE.COM technology companies may face in the near future? Anand and Mittal: Industry 4.0 is throwing up never before envisioned aspects and challenges. As this new branch of technology interfaces with pretty much every aspect of life, the challenges in future are going to be tricky to resolve. Some of the challenges that technology companies will face include, first, technology licensing. The future of SEP licensing will see cross-transfer of technology by both parties, and more objective methods of deciding royalty payments. Thus, the impetus on all organisations should be to develop their own IP to command a stronger negotiating position. Second, expanding definition of intermediaries and tightening safe harbour. Different jurisdictions are currently coming up with their own answers to the varying degrees of finding balance between in protecting the intermediary and aggregator business models (which are here to stay) and protecting free speech and related rights of individuals. Third, AI-related challenges. The list here is endless. From protecting one’s trade secrets from generative AI, to designing policies on the use of responsible AI and how to interact with generative AI; from addressing questions of authorship and inventor ship of AI - this field is expected to throw up the greatest amount of challenges. Fourth, data sharing, monetisation, and piracy. Data is the new gold rush. However, can one truly monetise it without cross-border reciprocal safeguards being in place? What security standards must one conform to , to ensure consistency of standards which will allow anonymised data to be used for further research, without comprising privacy and sensitive information of individuals, businesses and governments? Singh and Jha: At Inttl Advocare, we are attuned to the rapid growth and potential regulatory changes in the technology industry. We believe that with India’s growing realization for safeguarding its citizen’s personal data and the introduction of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2022, technology companies will be facing stricter data privacy regulations. Technology companies will need to adhere to more stringent laws regarding the collection, storage, and use of personal data. Compliance will require robust data protection measures, explicit user consent mechanisms, and adherence to privacy-by-design principles. Similarly, cybersecurity regulations are likely to become more stringent in response to evolving cyber threats. Technology companies will face heightened scrutiny and regulatory requirements to safeguard sensitive information and protection against data breaches. Implementing comprehensive cybersecurity measures and establishing effective incident response plans will become critical. Further, as artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance, we foresee the emergence of specific regulations addressing the ethical and legal implications of AI technologies. Companies utilizing AI will need to navigate issues related to bias, transparency, accountability, and potential liability arising from AI-driven decision-making. Compliance with these regulations will be crucial to maintain public trust and ensure responsible AI development and deployment. The increasing dominance of technology giants may invite intensified antitrust scrutiny and sanctions. Technology companies could face investigations into potential anti-competitive practices, leading to measures aimed at ensuring fair competition, such as divestitures and stricter regulations. Additionally, crossborder data transfers will continue to pose challenges. Technology companies operating across jurisdictions will need to navigate complex data protection regulations, including data localization requirements, adequacy determinations, and the negotiation of data transfer agreements. Sinha: The integration of AI technology across diverse industries presents an array of legal areas for analysis. We have seen some businesses develop internal rules to assess and adopt AI solutions. These rules vary from ethical concerns to legal risks arising out of such AI adoption - such as potential risk of intellectual property infringement, and liability implications arising from the utilization of automated tools in decision-making processes. It has been very interesting working with people on evaluating some of these. The other element is the changing nature of the legal environment, and preparing for these changes is the other significant risk for technology companies. We are witnessing greater discussion on anti-competitive effects of data-based companies from various corners (including Indian industry), need for regulation of consumer applications, calls for localisation of data. Preparing their businesses against these challenges is the other key risk that technology businesses need to prepare against in the near future. Singhania: The technology industry, particularly the online gaming industry, is currently anticipating future compliances to arise out of the various frameworks created by the SRBs under the provisions of the recently amended IT Rules 2021. The framework(s) are expected to follow stringent guidelines for the verification and approval of permissible online games which may be offered by gaming entities to users for real money as a form of entertainment. The legal challenge there will be to ensure that the games being provided by the gaming entities are compliant with all the legal requirements under the framework of the SRBs. As mentioned earlier, another anticipated change in the legal landscape will be the changes in existing data protection measures in due course of time. New legislations such as the Digital India Bill and the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill are expected to be passed by Parliament soon which will create another seismic shift in the legal field particularly, in respect of the tech industry. One of the key factors/ areas of concern for all is going to be data security; and the challenges that tech companies will face will range from appointment of essential, trained personnel to various mandatory posts to mitigate effects and ensure swift redressal in cyber-security incidents to ensuring storage of data in a secure manner that will not infringe on the privacy of individuals. The team at Krida Legal is working to continuously keep ourselves updated to ensure that we
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