Daniel J. McMullen is a Partner with Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP, where he practices Intellectual Property law and leads the Firm’ Information Technology practice, focusing on computer software and IT application development and licensing, cloud subscriptions, digital media, blockchain and other emerging technologies and data rights, privacy and cybersecurity matters.
Mr. McMullen has previously designed management information systems for General Motors, worked as a Trial Attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, and negotiated software agreements and litigated copyright, patent and trade secret disputes for corporate clients of Jones Day before joining Calfee. He worked with Professor Roger Fisher on the teaching staff of Harvard Law School’s Program of Instruction for Lawyers, Negotiation Workshop and taught intellectual property and cyberlaw for many years at CSU College of Law and later Case Western Reserve University Law School. He speaks and writes on various intellectual property and information technology issues and currently authors the LEXIS-NEXIS treatise, The Law of Electronic Commercial Transactions. He previously served as the U.S. District Court-appointed Monitor and Special Master in Reed v. Rhodes, the Cleveland school desegregation case, in which he mediated a comprehensive settlement agreement by which the case concluded. He presently serves on the U.S. District Court’s Panel of Neutrals where he mediates technology and intellectual property disputes.
Mr. McMullen was formerly a trustee of the Citizens League of Greater Cleveland and board chair of the Greater Cleveland Film Commission and currently serves on the board of the Ohio Conservation Federation and the GCP Technology Advisory Board.
Mr. McMullen earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School and his B.A. in economics from Harvard College.
Intellectual Property Rights in and Responsibilities for Emerging Technologies in Energy & Mobility Exploding demands for greater efficiency in energy generation, distribution and consumption and for highly capable, ‘smart’ mobility systems will both require ever more sophisticated control systems and related communications links and edge-based networks. Emerging technology developments, particularly in the Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Decentralized Networks (DN) and Web3 (a.k.a. the ‘Metaverse’), will predictably be incorporated into such new systems, creating valuable new Intellectual Property (IP) assets. The social, ethical and legal implications and consequences of these developments and large-scale adoption of such technologies (including as to, e.g., ownership of proprietary rights, data security and privacy, and exposure to liability) are not well understood today, embody both opportunities and associated risks, and warrant due consideration as such technologies reshape our physical, social and legal environments. Treatment of IP protection will predictably be particularly consequential to investment decisions in these areas. New applications combining these technologies will predictably be incorporated into monitoring and control systems for energy generation and distribution, as well as for smart vehicles and networked mobility environments. Legal questions regarding ownership of IP rights in AI-generated functions, along with corresponding responsibility for resulting outputs, have begun to emerge but are currently far from being resolved. The nature of such technologies challenge traditional principles of jurisprudence for recognizing proprietorship and liability. Moreover, such questions will inevitably proliferate as energy and mobility systems incorporating such technologies continue to expand in scale and complexity through IoT-enabled environments. Developing frameworks for analyzing these issues and effectively applying accepted ethical and legal principles in these rapidly evolving environments will be critical to maximizing economic and social benefits and minimizing risks from unintended consequences that could accompany or be precipitated by these powerful technologies. Key Words: Intellectual Property (IP), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Mobility Systems, Decentralized Networks (DN), Internet of Things (IoT), Autonomous Systems
Recognition of the importance of Intellectual Property Rights in emerging technologies in energy and mobility systems
Recognition of potential risks of liability associated with emerging technologies in energy and mobility systems
Developing frameworks based on accepted principles for recognizing proprietary rights in and responsibilities for emerging technologies as they are deployed
