全球政府和企业都在收集、存储和利用数据宝藏，并开发了复杂的计算方法，以便从这些数据中提取价值。例如，零售商对我们生活的记录比我们自己更加详尽。借助大量的顾客接触点，以及异常丰富的数据，零售商们甚至比消费者自己更早知道他们想要什么样的产品和服务。
乍听起来，这些事实可能有些令人毛骨悚然。虽然零售商们没有违法，但人们仍在广泛讨论是否需要制定一些政策，以便在隐私、谨慎、社会认可和所有权与不可否认的大量商业机会之间寻求平衡。但是，暂且不论隐私问题，我们需要什么样的法律制度来确保这个新行业的成长，并提供最大的个人和公共价值呢？我们要让正在成长的大数据资产类别受制于丛林法则吗？或者，我们需要新的规则去促进大数据行业的成长，使美国成为世界上最有吸引力的大数据行业基地吗？这些并不仅仅是抽象的法律问题，而是与我们的专利权、商标权和版权（也就是知识产权）法直接相关的问题。
在初期阶段，软件是随硬件销售而免费赠送的。短短几十年间，一个行业应运而生。随着这个行业的发展，我们的法律制度做出了相应改变，通过新的、不断发展的版权、专利权和商业秘密制度来促进这个行业的成长。如今，软件行业产值达数千亿美元，增长速度快、创新性高，并以极快的速度带来全新的消费者利益和挽救生命的机会。而美国几乎全面引领着整个软件行业的发展。
很多人会说，美国的领导地位在很大程度上归因于美国的支持性知识产权法，因为这部法律在提供激励措施，促进对创新的投资与向第三方提供使用机会之间，取得了非常好的平衡。
因此，参考软件行业的发展，可以公平地说，大数据行业风险很高，而且政策十分重要。但是，美国现行的知识产权体系内并不存在为调解大数据问题而量身定制的政策手段。然而，我们或许可以对知识产权法进行解释或重塑，使其在为数据行业提供最佳保护和激励措施的同时，实现社会利益的最大化。虽然我们现在还不具备大数据和知识产权之间相互作用的完整路线图，但是我们的确拥有一些可行的出发点。举例来说，我们的专利权和版权体系可以继续发挥其当前的作用——保护利用数据来获取价值的创造性方法（通过专利权）和数据本身的创造性（通过版权）。当然，还没有证据表明需要在这些领域实行更高或更低级别的保护措施，而有句老话说得好：如果东西还没坏，就不要去修。
就加快数据作为一种资产类别的发展而言，商标制度【想一想可口可乐(Coke )和麦当劳(McDonalds)等品牌】可能会发挥尤为重要的作用。特别是，认证标志可能会被证明非常有用。企业和消费者都会从认证机构【比如被广泛认可和信任的UL（美国保险商实验室）】实施的审查和标准符合性测试获益匪浅。
一旦这些机构认证了一种适用产品或服务，它们就允许承办商在商品或服务上附上认证标志。当你购买灯具或烤面包机时，“UL认证”标志提供了一个保证，它确保该电器可以和你家墙上的插座相匹配，并且兼容你家中的整个电气系统。
那么，认证标志如何在大数据行业中发挥作用呢？数据认证标志将证明相关数据是准确的、格式正确且完全覆盖主题。实际上，该标志将证明数据符合分析软件的“壁式插座”。
我们可以设想，标准制定组织确立规范，并按照商定的质量和准确度水平，允许采集、清理、整理、格式化、存储、保留、管理和提供数据的人使用适用的认证标志。而这些标准又可以支持对数据的交叉使用（如零售和医疗保健等行业之间）、后续使用（不再局限于最初采集数据时的目的，比如应用土壤成分数据来了解湿度水平）和研究（比如学术、政府或行业研究者的研究），这些应用必将使大数据成为重要的价值创造者。
目前，我们没有理由认为，必须对知识产权体系进行彻底改革，才能确保知识产权在大数据时代中的安全。我们应该考虑的是，前文所述的情形将给商标制度带来的新机会。最后，大数据将成为另一个衍生自信息与计算机技术，拥有光明前景的领域，而把促进数据行业成长作为政策重点的国家和地区，必将成为这一领域的领导者。(更多精彩资讯请点击中国进出口网）
Our business world stands today at the threshold of a new industry, as “big data” gains value on a very big scale. Vast quantities of information are evolving rapidly into an asset class in its own right, akin to software and hardware with their own ecosystems and competitive dynamics and innovation cycles. And of course, legal issues.
There are troves of data being collected and stored and used by governments and companies globally. Complex algorithms are being developed to extract value from all this data. Retailers, for example, have a more detailed account of our lives than we ourselves can access. With their massive number of customer touch points, they’re so data-rich that they know what products and services customers want before consumers even know it themselves.
Some of this might sound a bit creepy. While retailers are not breaking any laws, there is much debate about the need for policies to harmonize privacy, prudence, social acceptance, and ownership with an undeniably massive business opportunity. But setting aside the privacy issues, what sort of legal regime do we need to ensure this new industry grows, and provides maximum private and public value? Do we leave the growing big data asset class to the law of the jungle? Or do we need new rules to foster growth and make our country the world’s most attractive home for the business of big data? These aren’t just abstract legal questions; they’re questions going directly to our patent, trademark, and copyright — intellectual property — laws.
When software was in its nascent stages, it was given away for free to sell hardware. Over the course of a few short decades an industry emerged. And along with it our legal system adapted to foster growth through new and evolving copyright, patent, and trade secret regimes. Now, software is a multi-hundred-billion dollar industry enjoying rapid growth and innovation, delivering bright new consumer benefits and life-saving breakthroughs at warp speed. And the U.S. leads the software industry practically across the board.
Many would say our country’s leadership is attributable in no small measure to our supportive intellectual property laws that have struck just the right balance between providing incentives for investment in innovation and providing access to third parties.
So taking software as a guide, it is fair to say the stakes are high, and policy matters. But no existing policy device within our current intellectual property system is tailored to mediate big data. However, it may be possible to interpret or re-fashion our IP laws so that the best protections and incentives are afforded to the data industry and the maximum social good is realized. While we do not yet have a complete roadmap for the interplay between big data and IP, we do have a few viable starting points. For one, our patent and copyright systems can continue to play their current roles – protecting inventive ways to draw value from data (through patents) and the creative aspects of data (through copyrights). There is certainly no evidence that a much greater or lesser level of protection is called for in these areas, and there is wisdom in the old saw: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
The trademark system (think brands like Coke and McDonalds) may have an especially important role to play in accelerating the development of data as an asset class. Certification marks in particular may prove quite useful. Businesses and consumers alike benefit greatly from the vetting and standards compliance testing performed by certification organizations, such as the widely recognized and trusted UL (Underwriters Laboratories).
once these organizations certify compliance by an applicable product or service, they permit the purveyor to affix a certification mark. When you purchase a lamp or a toaster, the “UL Certified” mark provides assurance that the appliance will plug into the socket in your wall and work with your home’s electrical system.
How would this work in the big data industry? A data certification mark would attest that the applicable data is accurate, properly formatted, and thoroughly covers the subject. In effect, the mark would certify that the data’s prongs will fit into the analytical software’s wall socket.
One can envision standards-setting organizations establishing norms and permitting use of applicable certification marks by those who collect, clean, organize, format, store, retain, curate, and provide data according to an agreed-upon level of quality and accuracy. Such standards in turn would enable just the kind of cross-use (between industries like retail and healthcare), follow-on use (beyond the purpose for which the data was originally collected, such as wher soil composition data is used to understand moisture levels), and study (such as by academic, government, or industry researchers) that promise to make big data a huge creator of value.
At present, there is no reason to believe radical changes are needed in the IP system to render it safe for the advent of the data era. New opportunities for the trademark regime along the lines described above should be considered. In the end, the nations and regions that maintain a policy focus on fostering the growth of the data industry will be well positioned to lead into another promising field spinning out from information and computer technology.
