Jeanne Louise Galice is a French singer-songwriter and musician who began her career in 2013. The talented Ms. Galice is better known by her stage name “Jain” and her musical style was highly influenced by her childhood visits to Congo, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Listening to some of her intelligent music is a must (Makeba, Alright, Come).
JAI:N is “the world first AI (Artificial Intelligence) driven virtual D.J.” (Meet JAI:N – First-ever AI-driven Virtual DJ – YouTube).
JAI:N is a machine created by Sensorium Galaxy and Mubert Inc.’s developers who develop algorithms that enables virtual “artists” to create music in real-time based on an extensive database of music samples. JAI:N is such a musician and creates actual and original music works. JAI:N is to perform at Sensorium Galaxy — another must visit next-generation social VR platform.
The reason I am so interested in Jain, the young artist, and JAI:N, the AI D.J. is, of course, the fundamental super interesting legal and specifically intellectual property, issues and dilemmas.
Here are some of the questions I was asking myself when I first pondered the Jain vs. JAI:N situation:
Q.: Can a stage name (“Jain” in our case) be regarded as a trademark or a “right of advantage” of its owner? and if so, can such a right be enforced? How and by whom?
Q.: Does the lovely Ms. Jain have good arguments against JAI:N on account of trademark infringement since one can argue that both marks/names are phonetically and visually similar.
Q.: Can Jain argue for likelihood of association against JAI:N due to the somewhat resemblance between the names and area of practice?
Q.: Can an AI, JAI:N in our case, be regarded as maintaining a liability toward others? and if not, who can be held liable for such infringement arguments? The developer? The owner? The musicians who contributed to the music samples database that JAI:N uses while “creating” new music? And is it a “new” creation that deserve the protection of copyright law?
These are just some of the questions (theoretical obviously) one can ask when considering issues of AI products and its legal aspects. I choose to leave these questions unanswered, among other things, because I wish to have no quarrels with either party…
Finally, I chose to provide the sub-title “Jean qui rit et Jean qui pleure” (translated into English – Jean who laughs and Jean who cries) to this short memo as a homage to the famous poem written by Voltaire in the 18th century aimed to evoke the versatility of human beings, or should I say in our case – human beings and AI. The fact that the characters of the poem bear phonetically similar names as our examples in this article, is just a nice bonus.
*Note: All information presented in the article is general information only and does not constitute legal advice or opinion.
