White Paper
Forecasting 2027: Top Data Challenges on the Horizon for Intellectual Property Disputes
In recent surveys, general counsel have identified intellectual property theft and misappropriation among the most demanding and growing areas of work for their legal departments. Looking ahead to 2027, trade secret, patent and copyright disputes will become increasingly complex as organizations rely on software, cloud systems and artificial intelligence tools to develop, store and manage valuable IP. In turn, legal teams must be prepared to account for a broader evidentiary record, including source code repositories, collaboration platforms, cloud repositories, AI-generated artifacts and system activity logs that may show how IP was developed, accessed, used or potentially misused.
Responding to IP disputes increasingly requires legal teams to identify, preserve, analyze and explain technical evidence while protecting the sensitive information at the center of the case. Yet many traditional discovery workflows were not built for source code repositories, AI system data, cloud environments and other complex technical evidence. Findings from The General Counsel Report from FTI Technology and Relativity underscore the point: 34% of legal leaders identified IP matters as a top driver of disputes and investigations, while 32% cited the impacts of emerging technologies and data growth on litigation readiness and discovery costs as leading risk categories.
For legal teams, understanding the data challenges that arise in IP disputes is critical to improving readiness for future litigation and IP loss investigations. The top three issues set to impact cases in the year ahead are outlined in this white paper.