CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Digital twins are virtual representations of actual items, systems, or processes that redefine a variety of sectors by allowing for real-time monitoring, predictive analytics, and simulation-driven innovation. Digital twins are turning out to be increasingly an integral part of the modern digital economy, ranging from managing urban infrastructure to personalizing healthcare and optimizing manufacturing. It can replicate the features and behaviors of real-world objects in a way that has now become unprecedented for efficiency and insight. The digital twin is a novel and efficient approach for real-time interaction and enhanced integration between physical and digital realms.[1]
A digital twin is a virtual depiction of a real-world system, process, or physical object intended to replicate it in real-time. It is based on information gathered from sensors or other sources connected to the actual object. They are replicated systems that highlight a transformative evolution in cyber-physical automated manufacturing systems.[2]
Digital twins also bring difficulties with opportunities. The most important one is probably the issue of intellectual property ownership. To develop and maintain a digital twin, cooperation from many different parties is needed. These may include those who created the original designs of the actual object, and its manufacture, as well as those working on the software, supply data and even the running of the digital twin itself.
This convergence of expertise and resources brings unprecedented opportunities but raises critical questions, especially on the issue of IP ownership. Where data, algorithms, and simulations interplay seamlessly, the question of who owns the intellectual assets arising from this becomes very complex. Conflicts may emerge about who is entitled to the data, algorithms, or insights obtained from a digital twin developed and run by several parties. It affects teamwork, competitive advantage and creativity. Conflicts like these can impede cooperation and inhibit creativity, so it’s critical to address them clearly and strategically.
Origin of digital twin
The “twin” concept was initially used in NASA’s Apollo space program. In order for the spacecraft on Earth to mirror, imitate, and forecast the conditions of the other one in orbit, the program constructed two identical spacecraft. The twin of the spacecraft that carried out the mission remained on Earth and was heavily used for training before the flight. During the mission, it helped simulate in-flight conditions on the ground, allowing astronauts in orbit to receive support, especially in emergency situations. In this context, any prototype utilised to replicate actual operating conditions for the modelling of real-time behaviour might be regarded as a twin.[3] Today, NASA uses DT to develop next-generation vehicles and aircraft.[4] The first use of the “digital twin” terminology appeared in Hernández’s work.[5]
Applications
Digital twins are a technology that has it’s applications in different fields. Businesses can use digital twins to construct real-time virtual replicas of actual assets, systems, or processes in order to optimise performance, anticipate breakdowns, and innovate more successfully. This technology’s versatility to address problems and improve operations across sectors is what makes it so useful. These are some of the key sectors that are changing because to digital twins.
Manufacturing
Without addressing it directly, the manufacturing and process technology sectors have a history of utilising the digital twin concept.
Digital twinning can be applied to a broad spectrum of uses within manufacturing, including remote operation, simulation, and using virtual objects to monitor physical assets. Moreover, through enhanced knowledge of consumer desires, development of enhancements to existing processes, services, and products, and promoting new company innovation, digital twin technology can enhance production to improve satisfaction of customers.
Manufacturing companies can change from reactive to predictive using the Digital Twin. They can determine when a piece of equipment is worn out or needs to be repaired, enhance the machine’s functionality, increase its lifespan, and figure out how to redesign it to do even more. It also allows them to perform pre-sales analytics and usage-based design, as well as to infuse intelligence into manual operations to improve visibility into consumer wants, among other things.
Healthcare
There are numerous applications for digital twin technology in the medical field. They are revolutionising patient care and customised medication in the healthcare industry. Building virtual models of specific patients allows healthcare providers to mimic treatment regimens, forecast outcomes, and optimise treatments. For example, before a certain surgery or drug is given, its efficacy can be tested using a digital twin of the patient’s heart. Additionally, it allows for better accurate medical gadget design and testing. The use of digital twins in the biological sciences is similar to that of other industries. The healthcare sectors were compelled to step up their digital transformation initiatives due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[6]
Applications of the technology in the living sciences, particularly in drug research and discovery, are becoming more widespread. For instance, the software firm “Dassault” has created an experimental Twin of the human heart. The company’s software creates a realistic, full-dimension model of a person’s heart dubbed “Living Heart” from a 2D scan of the person. This accurate model of human organs takes mechanics, electricity, and blood flow into consideration. Today, this model is being applied globally to develop and test novel medical devices and therapies.[7] Additionally, digital models and replicas of patients, medical equipment, and healthcare facilities are produced using Digital Twin technology. The goals are to analyze, monitor, and predict challenges in delivery, healthcare facility maintenance, and rising R&D costs.[8]
Agriculture
Digital twins transform the agricultural world by enhancing crop management, resource utilization, and machinery performance. Farming will use digital models for their fields that can predict effects of weather events, optimize irrigation systems, and monitor the soil conditions. Tractor digital twins, for example, may monitor performance and anticipate.
Due to their reliance on environmental factors like diseases, soil conditions, weather and seasonality farming operations are extremely dynamic and complicated. By making it possible to separate the informational and physical components of farm management, digital twin technology can greatly improve the necessary control capacities of the agriculture sector. A farm can be virtually represented by technology, which can increase productivity and efficiency while lowering expenses and energy consumption.
Digital twins can help enable the measurement and analysis of soil capacity and composition, as well as the seeds and crops that rely on it.[9] The simulated results of a growing season might provide answers on predicted yield when using Digital Twins.
Education
For many years, virtual reality (VR) technology has been employed in medical education to enhance and augment conventional health education. Additionally, the technology-assisted surgeons perform robotic surgery and physicians treat patients.
Using augmented and virtual reality, digital twins enabled by artificial intelligence (AI) can leverage the training and education needs of healthcare professionals. For instance, many businesses have used surgical and medical anatomy simulations to encourage interactive learning and reduce the need for cadavers.[10] Combining the digital twins of education and other industry sectors would be more effective for cultivating certain abilities.
CHAPTER 2: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND DIGITAL TWINS
PATENTS
In the previous decade, there has been a surge in the number of patent applications, particularly for digital twin technology. Patents for digital twins increased from 2011 to 2017, indicating that such technology was well-recognized. As early as 2018, the pace of innovation and the pursuit of claims over invention explosions increased as firms sought to achieve a competitive advantage in new markets. This is in line with the trend observed during the digital revolution and transformation, where firms aim to enhance their patent portfolio by integrating technologies like artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), and big data analytics into digital twin development. Patents in this area often address strategies for improving the integration of real-time data, simulation, and predictive analytics.
Digital twins have altered the playing field in a variety of sectors by developing new approaches to problem solving and decision making. In the health industry, for example, digital twins have been used to follow patients’ health, simulate procedures, and predict their effectiveness. This allows for more personalised therapies by integrating predictive modelling and virtual imaging of organs or entire systems, resulting in better healthcare.[11] This application is especially useful for medical device makers, who use virtual product models to optimise a variety of product designs and conduct simulation testing, which shortens the development cycle.
Digital twins are used throughout the product lifetime in the automobile industry, from design to manufacture to maintenance and repair. Automobile makers use digital twins to gather data on vehicle safety, performance, and electric powertrain parameters.[12]
Digital twins in the media, including gaming and entertainment, allow people to participate more deeply within an immersive environment. Applications that involve Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality employ this technology into their platforms to enable user-friendly participation in simulative activities. It also applies in the gaming industry, where motion sensing devices and modelling technologies enable players to immerse themselves in a variety of virtual environments in real time. Furthermore, in the film business, digital twins have been integrated into the filmmaking process for motion capture, giving in a more realistic experience and better narrative.
Collectively, these forms of representation have shown to be extremely valuable in a variety of industries, including filmmaking, gaming, and even other technologically linked enterprises, because to the knowledge and foresight they bring, which is projected to improve future practices.[13]
COPYRIGHTS
Sophisticated software, data formats, and inventive design methods are used to build digital Twins. Even if digital twins as a whole are not necessarily copyrightable in and of themselves, many of their individual pieces are. The digital twin is divided into the following components: the underlying software code, designs, and documentation needed to generate and maintain the digital twin. Just as creative and original uses of physical systems can be copyrighted as virtual models or representations of physical systems, so can virtual models or representations of physical systems themselves, if they embody creative and original expressions. [14]
However, the copyrightability of a digital twin is determined by a variety of key circumstances. The first and most important principle of copyright law is originality. A digital twin is acceptable if it does not just replicate previous works but also exhibits a unique input, organisation, or expression. Second, the digital twin must be some form of artistic expression. For example, a visually complex 3D model or a differently developed algorithm might meet such a demand.[15] Proper documentation of the creative process can help to establish copyright claims by demonstrating originality and creative effort. To succeed in this field, developers, legal experts, and legislators must collaborate to strike a balance between copyright law and data protection, as well as the creation of new technologies.
Digital twins, conceived as an intersection of modern technology and creative design, raise high-stakes considerations concerning their copyrightability. Not all components of a digital twin are copyrightable, but the underlying software, data organisation, and visual representations may be. Given the increased interest in digital twins across sectors, understanding the legal and intellectual property framework around these twins will become increasingly critical in order to safeguard innovation via rights while also respecting the rights of others. To establish the scope and application of copyright in this rapidly growing arena, further study and legal clarity will be required.
TRADEMARK
Trademarks are replicated virtually. [16]The term “digital twin” applies to companies that create virtual versions of their trademarks, such as logos, colours, or taglines. A brand’s digital twins are virtual replacements for tangible brand representations, allowing businesses to monitor whether they’re being used across several platforms. This feature is particularly crucial in digital advertising, social media, and e-commerce, because brand components may easily be modified or misused. Businesses keep virtual representations of their trademarks to imitate and reinforce brand recognition while battling the uneven appearance and feel of the brand.[17]
Digital twins help simulate and monitor the use of trademarks in digital spaces to ensure consistency and compliance. For example, they can follow the way their logos and slogans are used in online ads, social media campaigns and product packaging. Monitoring also guarantees that applications adhere to corporate guidelines, ensuring proper usage of brand elements, and mitigating the risk for improper use. It is particularly important for global brands which need to maintain consistency across diverse cultural and geographic markets. Companies may also use digital twins to predict how a brand will fare in the market before it goes online.
TRADE SECRETS
The security of a digital twin is incomplete unless the system’s underlying trade secrets are protected. Also, although patents require that the idea be made public, trade secrets allow organisations to keep their breakthroughs private as long as they do everything necessary to protect their information. Several features of digital twin technology can be protected by trade secret laws:
The precise characteristics and parts of a digital twin system setup, as well as the flexibility, scalability, and integration of its components, often determine the system’s performance. All of these design ideas can become trade secrets, which precludes rivals from imitating, copying, or reverse-engineering the system.[18] Digital twins rely on extensive, structural information to determine how digital and real-world entities interact. These models, which are typically generated through independent research and development, are extremely beneficial in terms of twin accuracy and reliability.
Companies may use distinct techniques to link their digital twins with ERP, IoT, or MES systems. These approaches help speed up labour and keep data flowing smoothly, hence they are considered intellectual property. [19]
CHAPTER 3: CHALLENGES IN IP OWNERSHIP FOR DIGITAL TWINS
The rise of digital twins—virtual replicas of physical systems, assets, or processes—has introduced complex intellectual property (IP) ownership challenges. These challenges stem from the multi-faceted nature of digital twins, which incorporate vast amounts of data, often contributed by various stakeholders. Below, we explore the key legal and IP-related issues in detail.
One of the most difficult legal challenges is determining who owns the data that serves as the foundation for a digital twin. It is often made using data from various sources, such as developers, physical asset owners, or third-party data suppliers. The ownership of the digital model as a whole is called into question. If copyright-protected work from different contributors is intermingled, copyright owners may face a joint ownership dispute over control and rights to what can be utilised. Furthermore, if data contributors retain ownership of their data, it is difficult to define the ownership boundaries of the integrated digital twin, which may contain both proprietary and open data.[20]
Data may be effortlessly transferred between parties, which is a key feature of digital twins. However, this contradicts current guidelines that promote the most minimal data exchange to address security concerns about unauthorised access or abuse. Although the combination of several digital twins reduces the possibility of data breaches, the chance of breaches increases confidentially.[21] Arguments also must rank legal instruments such as non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). These might be individual contracts or project-wide confidentiality agreements that all parties rigorously adhere to in terms of data protection.
It also relies significantly on massive volumes of data, which frequently contain sensitive or private information. This dependency leads to crossings between intellectual property and data protection regulations. While data may not be considered intellectual property in many jurisdictions, it is critical to the operation and accuracy of a digital twin. Real-time sensor data from an industrial asset, as well as personal health data from a wearable device, raises privacy and ownership problems. Furthermore, collecting personal data in digital twins complicates compliance with data protection rules such as the European Union’s GDPR General Data Protection Regulation. To do this, organisations must carefully plan the legal and technological use and ownership of data in accordance with privacy rules, while also respecting user rights and providing necessary protections.
The ethical concerns of digital twins extend well beyond legal difficulties. These debates revolve around exploitation, openness, and justice. For example, using data from a it without the authorisation of the data subject or the real asset’s owner raises ethical concerns. To ensure trust and accountability, the creation, maintenance, and usage of digital twins must be open. We also make fairness a must, especially when we do not want anyone to be exploited, with one stakeholder benefiting much more than another. This means that ethical criteria must be established to ensure that the production and usage of digital twins result in equally advantageous results, respect stakeholders’ rights, and prevent unanticipated bad consequences.
CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION
The technology of developing a real-world counterpart to a virtual system is a significant pointer that industries are ready to embrace a massive revolution in how they work and execute their services in the digital world. Digital twins connect the real and virtual worlds, helping businesses improve decision-making, enhance operational efficiency, and drive innovation across various fields such as healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture, and construction.
But experienced difficulties such as IP rights and legal issues in connection with this innovation.
Examining how existing IP laws, such as patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets, apply or should apply to digital twins identifies several issues in urgent need of legal definition. For example, patents may provide solutions to the technological aspect of digital twins but may possibly overlook, for instance, collaboration inputs or progressive software modules. Likewise, originality and artistic content are determinative for digital twins , but overlaps in rights to such underlying data or third-party inputs add up to it. To minimize jurisdictional conflict and make cross border use of the digital twin possible, governments and regulatory must consider the formulation of harmonised laws across the world.
Author:Velmury Nihar, in case of any queries please contact/write back to us via email to chhavi@khuranaandkhurana.com or at Khurana & Khurana, Advocates and IP Attorney.
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