SLOVENIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Nataša Pipan Nahtigal, Veronika Novak and Katarina Čepon, Šelih & partnerji
author’s own intellectual creation. Databases can also be protected in any way with a contract or can even be considered a trade secret, if the database meets the conditions from the Trade Secret Act. As for scraping and data extraction, an authorised user of a published database may freely use insub- stantial parts of its content for any purpose. However, the user must not use the database in a way that goes against its normal use or that unfairly harms the inter- ests of the database maker, and must also respect any copyright or related rights in the materials contained in the database. 7.2 AI-Generated Works and Inventorship/ Authorship AI-Generated Works and Authorship When it comes to AI-generated content, there still has not been any case law in Slovenia. However, it is clear that AI cannot be considered an author since it is not a natural person. Most EU member states are of the opinion that AI-generated works may be protected by copyright if a human was greatly involved in the creation process and the author’s creative choices are reflected in the final work. AI therefore has to remain only an assisting tool. AI-Generated Works and Inventorship An inventor can only be a natural person, which is also reflected in Slovenian law requiring the inventor’s name and allowing only natural persons (or their suc- cessors) to claim patent rights. However, patents may still be granted where AI is used as a tool, provided that a human makes a significant contribution to the invention and is named as the inventor. Both EPO and USPTO guidance confirm this approach, requiring a qualitative human contribution, while Slovenia has not Since there are no specific AI rules, businesses struc- ture ownership through the general copyright frame- work and contracts. Since an author under Slovenian law can only be a natural person, businesses generally assume that only the human contribution can attract copyright protection, and they deal with AI-assisted outputs by contracts or employment law, while ensur- yet addressed such a case in practice. Ownership of AI-Generated Works
ing that the general terms of the AI model clearly pro- vide that the company owns all rights in the output. 7.3 Training Data, Model Development and Infringement Risk Using Copyrighted Works in Training Datasets: Text and Data Mining For the purposes of text and data mining, works to which lawful access has been obtained may be reproduced freely. The author may explicitly reserve the right to use the work, in particular with internation- ally recognised standardised machine-readable tools that contain metadata and general terms of use in the case of online, publicly accessible works. This is an implementation of Directive (EU) 2019/790 on copy- right and related rights in the Digital Single Market, which introduced the text and data mining exception. Article 4 of the Directive provides that rightsholders may reserve the use of their works for text and data mining purposes (that is, they have an option to opt out). In the context of AI, the EU AI Act further requires compliance with intellectual property law, with par- ticular emphasis on the opt-out mechanism for text and data mining and on the obligation of providers of generative AI models to ensure transparency regard- ing the data used for training. Using Trade Secrets in Training Datasets For trade secrets, the risk is different: if the training set contains confidential know-how or business infor- mation obtained without permission, the issue is not copyright infringement but unlawful acquisition, use or disclosure of a trade secret. Slovenia regulates this through the Trade Secret Act, which expressly pro- tects trade secrets. Enforcement Landscape So far, there appears to be no Slovenian case law directly addressing AI training datasets. However, under the existing ZASP framework, a claimant could likely seek to stop further use of the data and claim damages, which could be effective when the opt-out option was not respected. 7.4 Enforcement Against AI-Enabled Infringement Slovenian courts have not yet addressed the issue of infringing intellectual property rights using generative
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