Intellectual property management in science and technology information linkage among higher education institutions amid the development of artificial intelligence

Abstract

This article examines the management of intellectual property rights in the sharing of scientific and technological information among Vietnamese higher education institutions in the context of advances in artificial intelligence (AI). Employing doctrinal legal analysis, comparative legal analysis and conceptual modelling, the study focuses on scientific and technological information resources whose sharing primarily raises copyright concerns, rather than issues relating to the transfer or exploitation of industrial property rights associated with underlying technical solutions. It argues that lawful publication and public accessibility do not, in themselves, establish sufficient grounds for the application of legal provisions governing AI training. Furthermore, open-access materials are subject to varying licensing conditions, creating legal uncertainty and increasing transaction costs. The study identifies three key gaps in the existing governance framework: the absence of clear criteria for distinguishing between different purposes of use; inadequate infrastructure for reserving rights; and the lack of a collective management organisation for copyright in scientific and technological information resources. Drawing on comparative legal perspectives from the European Union, Germany and the United States, the article proposes a Scientific and Technological Information Consortium as a collective copyright management organisation. The proposed model incorporates a three-component authorisation mechanism and a four-stream operational framework to facilitate the lawful and coordinated sharing and use of scientific and technological information resources.