Trowers Tech News - March 2025

Welcome to the latest edition of Trowers Tech News.

This month, we focus on significant legislative changes impacting the AI landscape. President Trump's new AI Executive Order, "Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence," marks a stark shift from President Biden's 2023 Order, emphasising economic growth and reducing regulatory obstacles. This shift has sparked debate, with critics highlighting potential risks to workers' rights and privacy. Meanwhile, the UK government is navigating between the US and EU positions, delaying its regulatory plans to find a balanced approach. We have also included our usual monthly round up of news and updates.

Top tech trends: deals, regulations and legal shifts

Victoria Robertson, Head of Technology Sector Group and Commercial Partner

Legislative changes

President Biden's executive order of October 2023, "Safe Secure and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence" (the 2023 Order), as imaginable from its title, focussed on, amongst other areas, safety, security, data privacy, equity and bias, consumer protection, and workers' rights.

In January 2025 President Trump rescinded this Order and issued a new AI Executive Order (the 2025 Order). Again, the title is telling when considering the shift – this is "Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence". The 2025 Order focuses on AI for economic growth and enables a review and potential withdrawal of all policies and regulations pursuant to the 2023 Order, which are now seen as regulatory obstacles.

The White House Fact Sheet refers to the 2023 Order as being "a dangerous Executive Order that hinders innovation and imposes onerous and unnecessary government control over the development of AI". News outlets such as the Guardian have criticised the 2025 Order, saying that its "rollback of basic guardrails for artificial intelligence leaves US workers at real risk" and that the planned AI backed review of student visa holders' social media accounts presents risks of errors, misidentifications and privacy violations, and freedom of speech issues.

It is perhaps not surprising that President Trump is leading a bullish AI approach given the recent slump in US tech stocks following the sudden rise of the Chinese DeepSeek AI app, which President Trump described in January as a "wake-up call" for the US tech industry. Since the 2025 Order was issued, news reports have detailed that the UK government appears to have slowed down its plans to regulate – by six months, to try and find a middle ground between the US position and the EU position which, as well as the EU AI Act, has this week seen the Spanish government approve a bill imposing massive fines on companies which use AI generated content without properly labelling it as such.

The UK government not only has these two vastly different legislative approaches to consider but also has its own new AI Opportunities Plan and other public sector changes detailed below to take into account.

Anna Horsthuis, Senior Associate, Commercial 

Public sector tech engagement

Public procurement of technology and AI has been in the news (including the Government's report that the public sector is missing out on £45bn annual savings due to archaic technology) and in the minds of our tech sector clients, with a number of recent key changes and publications.

The Procurement Act 2023 came into force on 24 February 2025, with far-reaching implications for the tech sector. The PA23 aims to modernise and streamline procurement processes, with an emphasis on digital transformation and accessibility. Changes include the new requirement for electronic communications in procurement processes, which will require bidders to ensure their systems are compatible with government platforms, and the Competitive Flexible Procedure, which enables procurement teams to design processes for specific projects, allowing for a R&D style approach which will cater for deeper engagement with suppliers and enable specifications to be refined throughout procurement processes.

Smaller tech companies will be pleased by the requirement for contracting authorities to consider barriers that SMEs face in procurement and whether these can be reduced or removed. The PA 23 may in time require tech providers to align with Open Contracting Data Standard principles, which have significant requirements for data quality and transparency.

As well as the PA23, the Government issued its AI Playbook on 10 February, detailing initiatives such as Dynamic Purchasing Systems which offer flexibility for public authorities procuring AI solutions. The Playbook also outlines ethical and data privacy concerns when utilising or incorporating AI.

The Government also published its AI Opportunities Action Plan in January 2025 which advocates for AI usage to bolster resilience and productivity across public services. These changes hopefully represent a digital renaissance, offering tech companies an opportunity to innovate, collaborate and shape the future of public services in an AI-driven era (and to assist the public sector with the huge potential cost-savings the Government sees AI representing).

For more guidance see Essential Guide to the Procurement Act 2023

Alice Stripe, Senior Associate, Intellectual Property

The intersection of AI and intellectual property: key legal developments in 2025

As AI continues to reshape nearly every sector and industry, its intersection with intellectual property (IP) law has become a focal point of legal discourse. So far this year we have seen significant developments in the ongoing legal battle between Getty Images v Stability AI [2025] EWHC 38 (Ch). This case focuses on allegations by Getty Images that Stability's GenAI product (Stable Diffusion) infringes Getty's IP rights, by scraping its copyright protected online images without consent, and using these images to train its GenAI model.

A recent procedural update has important implications. On 14 January 2025, the High Court handed down a judgment confirming that the Sixth Claimant, Thomas M Barwick Inc., could not act as a class representative for 50,000+ copyright owners who licensed work exclusively to Getty. The court found that the class of owners to be represented was not clearly defined enough, because it is impossible to know what works had been used to train Stability's GenAI model.

The next stage of these proceedings, (which is scheduled for 9 June 2025), is one to watch as it will likely be a significant development in guidance on the use of GenAI and infringement of intellectual property rights.

In other IP news, in a proactive move to address the challenges posed by AI in the realm of copyright, the UK Government launched a consultation in December 2024 to seek input on how copyright works could be used to train GenAI models.

The consultation included details of the Government's key objectives for this area, including boosting trust and transparency, enhancing owners' control over whether their works are used to train AI models and how they could be paid for this, and ensuring AI developers have access to high-quality training materials. The consultation closed on 25 February 2024.

We will be watching with interest these key developments over the interaction of AI and IP law, and the challenges and opportunities which may ensue. For some light viewing, here is a YouTube video of House of Lords members discussing the impact of AI on copyright law.