Artificial intelligence is changing how businesses create, compete, and protect their ideas faster than the legal frameworks surrounding it can evolve. Merchant & Gould helps companies move forward with confidence through AI governance benchmarking, practical AI legal counseling, and intellectual property strategies for AI-driven innovation. We advise businesses, legal teams, and leadership on responsible AI adoption, governance, confidentiality, data use, vendor risk, AI risk management, and the protection of valuable intellectual property.
AI Governance Benchmarking & Risk Assessment
Merchant’s AI governance benchmarking services help companies understand how their AI policies, governance structures, and risk controls compare with industry peers, emerging standards, and AI governance best practices. We assess acceptable-use policies, approval processes, risk assessments, vendor oversight, human-review requirements, and related controls. From there, we identify gaps and develop prioritized, actionable recommendations. We help clients determine what responsible AI governance should look like for their business, workforce, risk profile, and ambitions.
AI Intellectual Property & Transactions
Our AI counseling extends across the intellectual property lifecycle. We advise on patent strategy and AI-assisted inventorship, as well as copyright protection, training data, and generative AI content. We also help clients protect trademarks, address deepfakes and online brand misuse, and safeguard proprietary models, algorithms, data, and other trade secrets. Our transactional work includes AI vendor agreements, model and data licensing, SaaS and API terms, confidentiality, data use, joint development arrangements, due diligence, and ownership of AI-assisted work.
AI Disputes & Enforcement
When AI creates a dispute, or changes the shape of an existing one, Merchant brings the same technical depth and independent thinking to enforcement and litigation. Our attorneys handle patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret disputes involving AI technologies and AI-generated content while helping clients address emerging issues before they become disputes.
The technology may be new. The challenge of protecting innovation is not. Merchant helps clients understand the rules that exist, question assumptions that no longer fit, and build strategies designed for what comes next.
Group Chairs
Partner
Minneapolis
Partner
Minneapolis