AI AT PANDA LAW

Artificial intelligence is not a single practice area. It is a dimension of everything we do.

We have been advising AI companies and businesses deploying AI since the early days of India’s AI ecosystem. Our work spans the full lifecycle of an AI product, from data sourcing and model training through to product structuring, regulatory compliance, commercial deployment, IP protection, and enforcement. We advise across jurisdictions, including India, the EU, the UK, and the US.

What sets our AI practice apart is that it does not sit in a single team or a single legal discipline. AI raises questions across intellectual property, data protection, technology regulation, media and entertainment, corporate structuring, and disputes. We bring all of these capabilities to bear for our AI clients through a single, integrated team.

How We Help AI Companies

Regulatory Compliance

We advise on AI regulation across India, the EU (including the EU AI Act), the UK, and the US. We help clients classify their products within risk-based regulatory frameworks, assess compliance obligations, and build governance structures that satisfy regulatory requirements across multiple jurisdictions. We have made submissions to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on AI and frontier technologies and track the evolving regulatory landscape closely.

Data Licensing for Model Training

One of the most complex legal challenges in AI is sourcing training data lawfully. We have developed frameworks for the licensing of personal data, copyrighted content, proprietary datasets, and open data for AI training, helping companies build data pipelines that are legally defensible across jurisdictions. We advise on the intersection of copyright law, data protection law, and contractual restrictions that govern what data can be used, how, and on what terms.

Product Structuring

We advise on the legal architecture of AI products from the design stage, covering terms of service, output liability, user agreements, content moderation for AI-generated outputs, and the allocation of responsibility between the AI developer, the deployer, and the end user. For companies integrating AI into existing platforms, we advise on structuring the integration to manage regulatory risk without disrupting the core product.

IP Protection

AI products involve multiple layers of intellectual property: the underlying model architecture, the training data, the trained model weights, fine-tuning and customisations, and the outputs. Each layer has different ownership and licensing implications. We advise on structuring IP ownership across these layers, protecting proprietary models and algorithms through trade secrets and contractual measures, and navigating open-source model licences (MIT, Apache, GPL, and custom licences) for commercial deployment.

Data Privacy & Governance

AI systems process vast quantities of data, much of which may be personal data governed by the DPDP Act, the GDPR, and other frameworks. We advise on consent and lawful basis for AI data processing, data minimisation, cross-border data transfers, data subject rights in the context of AI decision-making, and the specific challenges of processing personal data for model training. Our data privacy work is integrated with our AI advisory rather than treated as a separate compliance exercise.

Responsible AI & Ethics

We help companies build responsible AI frameworks covering bias detection and mitigation, transparency and explainability, human oversight, impact assessments, and accountability structures. While India does not yet mandate responsible AI frameworks by law, they are increasingly expected by regulators, investors, enterprise clients, and users. Our frameworks are proportionate to the product’s risk profile and aligned with global standards including the EU AI Act’s risk-based approach.

AI and Media & Entertainment

AI is transforming content creation, distribution, and rights management. We advise on the copyright implications of AI-generated content, the use of AI in music and film production, personality rights protection against deepfakes and AI-generated likenesses, and the legal framework for AI tools used in content moderation and recommendation. We have handled matters at the frontier of AI and creative rights in India.

AI Disputes

As AI adoption grows, so does the volume of disputes. We advise on and handle disputes involving copyright infringement in AI training data, trade secret misappropriation in AI models, personality rights violations through deepfakes, contractual disputes over AI product performance and liability, and regulatory enforcement actions relating to AI-generated content. We track global developments in AI litigation, including cases before the Delhi High Court, UK courts, and EU courts, and advise clients on their exposure.

Who We Work With

Our AI clients include companies building voice AI, video AI, marketing AI, and AI surveillance products for global markets. We advise a major global technology company on the development and deployment of AI-enabled tools, including data licensing for model training and regulatory risk management. We advise AI startups on product structuring, fundraising, IP protection, and global compliance from inception through commercial deployment. We also advise businesses across sectors, including e-commerce, media, publishing, healthcare, and agriculture, on the integration of AI into their operations and products.

Policy & Thought Leadership

We are actively engaged in AI policy development. We have submitted consultation papers to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on AI and frontier technologies. We contribute to INTA’s Data Committee work on the intersection of AI, data governance, and intellectual property. We are members of iTechLaw and the Crypto Valley Association and participate in global forums on AI regulation. Our published work covers AI and copyright, AI training data licensing, AI-generated content regulation, and comparative approaches to AI governance across jurisdictions.

Artificial Intelligence: Regulatory, Product Structuring & Data Licensing — Technology

Data Licensing for AI Model Training — Data Privacy & Governance

Celebrity & Personality Rights (Deepfakes and AI Likenesses) — Media & Entertainment

Trade Secrets (AI Models and Algorithms) — Intellectual Property

Technology & Data Disputes (AI Disputes) — Disputes

Technology Policy (AI Policy & Regulation) — Technology

AI Companies & Developers — Industry Guide