By Ilianna Murphy.
I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Stolley, who works for Intel as a Cloud Application Development Engineer. Mr. Stolley works under the IP Program Office, and earned his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Iowa. His answers are paraphrased.
1. Can you tell me more about your career path and what led you to specialize in IP?
Honestly, I moved from Iowa to Arizona when my wife decided to go to law school and applied to several jobs, including Intel. Part of Intel’s job description included IP, which I had studied in school, but had no real work experience in. In other words, it was not a purposeful choice, I stumbled into it.
2. What were some of the biggest challenges you faced when starting out in the IP field?
The hardest part was learning all the terminology and lingo IP professionals use in their day to day activities. I would start trying to understand those terms now. I’m still learning every day. Also, I had to learn how to manage, design, and protect the microprocessors and transistors that store our intellectual assets.
3. What does a typical day look like for you in your current position?
I’m going to purposefully try to keep this as vague as possible to not disclose anything too sensitive. But on a typical day, I answer technical questions, support emails, work on new features for our applications, grant people the correct permissions to company intellectual property, and collaborate with inventors and engineers to strategize ways to improve the company’s IP protection and management.
4. How do you collaborate with this team?
Yes, the engineers translate the technical code into protectable assets. The creators get a document that states exactly who created it and who owns the rights to monetize the creation. And the legal side maintains an updated IP Map and checks that the material complies with the current standards.
5. What are some of the recent trends in the IP landscape that have most impacted your work?
AI has definitely impacted my work. We have strict rules at work about AI usage in the workplace. As the technology giant, Samsung learned AI can be really dangerous for companies trying to protect IP. (Here he’s referencing the incident in 2023, where a Samsung engineer accidentally leaked sensitive internal code by uploading it to ChatGPT. ChatGPT stored this information on its servers and could be freely fed back to the public. Source: Ray, Siladitya.
“Samsung Bans ChatGPT Among Employees After Sensitive Code Leak.” Forbes. 2, May, 2023, https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2023/05/02/samsung-bans-chatgpt-and-other-chatbots for-employees-after-sensitive-code-leak/)
6. So can you use AI in the workplace as an IP Professional?
Yes, actually, we do; but again, it’s highly restricted on what we can use it for. I prefer not to use it. Also, we have to take annual security quizzes on what information is personal, confidential, and classified. These all have different meanings and levels of clearance.
7. What advice would you give to students (from technical or business backgrounds) who are interested in pursuing a career in IP?
As AI continues to become a central part of the modern workplace, it is essential to understand how to use these tools effectively and responsibly. While AI can be a powerful asset for specific tasks, it is important not to rely on it 100% of the time, as “AI slop” or low-quality outputs are common. Developing the skill to provide clear prompts and knowing exactly when to question the AI’s accuracy will ensure you get the best results without compromising quality.
In a professional coding environment, for example, you can bridge the gap between AI and your specific workflow by using “specs” or detailed AI instructions. By providing these parameters, you can effectively train the AI to understand your unique code stack and the specific conventions your team follows. This targeted approach allows the AI to act as a helpful partner rather than an unreliable source of generic information.
8. Are there any particular certifications or extracurricular activities you would recommend to better prepare for this field?
Again, not necessarily, but in general I would recommend staying curious, keep up to date with AI news and upcoming technology. Our field is constantly changing and we constantly need to incorporate or learn new technology. Also, watch out for apps that try to sneak in AI. Our office does not use Adobe because it has a provision in its user’s guidelines that allows the app to use your documents and input that information into its AI. So make sure to read all the guidelines you and your company use because platforms will try to take your information with little to no warning.
9. What are your thoughts on the future of IP in the context of emerging technologies like AI and blockchain?
I view the convergence of AI and blockchain as a fundamental shift from a reactive to a proactive protection model. AI is currently challenging our traditional definitions of authorship and inventorship, requiring us to move beyond human-centric frameworks to address machine-generated innovation and the massive fair-use debates surrounding training data.
Simultaneously, blockchain provides the technical solution to these challenges by offering an unchangeable and timestamped proof of creation. This allows for the automation of complex licensing through smart contracts, ensuring that as AI scales the volume of digital content, creators can still maintain a verifiable audit trail of their intellectual property. The future of IP will likely depend on this hybrid approach: using AI to monitor and detect global infringements in real-time, while leveraging blockchain to secure ownership and automate royalty distributions in a decentralized economy.
10. How do you think global IP standards will adapt to the increasing digitalization of content and commerce?
First, yes, I do think the standards are changing and should change. IP professionals are trying to make sure that 1) our IP is protected and 2) it is quickly protected. I think global standards will create algorithmic enforcement, and will allow AI to detect and take down infringements in seconds rather than months. We are already starting to see this with content bans on certain platforms, but it will continue to expand. Also, we will continue to see more AI models and components protected by IP, like patents and copyrights. This shift will assist with corporate security, as it establishes a legal barrier regarding their proprietary data used in AI, thus keeping the material private rather than part of the public domain.
Interviewee: Ryan Stolley