Intellectual Property Notice

This notice explains how AxiLayer AI, Inc. protects the AxiSentinel and AxiReady platforms under patent, trade secret, copyright and trademark law, how each of those protections works across borders, and the terms on which technical material is shared. Section 1 summarizes AxiLayer AI's own position. Sections 2 to 8 describe the law in each area, with references to official sources listed in Section 11. Where a section states what the law provides, it describes the law. It does not claim that AxiLayer AI holds a right in a given country beyond what Section 1 states.

1. Protection at a glance

This notice does not describe AxiSentinel as patented. Protection of each kind is national or regional. There is no single international patent, trademark or trade secret right. Copyright is the one area in which a treaty makes protection arise automatically in many countries, and even there the scope, term and exceptions are set by each country's law.

2. Patents

2.1 AxiLayer AI's patent position

AxiLayer AI's platform technology, including the AxiSentinel architecture, is the subject of U.S. patent applications, all pending. The applications were filed ahead of any government funding or SBIR application.

The U.S. filing dates establish AxiLayer AI's priority for these inventions under the Paris Convention. International protection is being pursued, including through a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) application, within the priority period. Unpublished patent applications are not disclosed, and AxiLayer AI does not publish claim language or technical detail beyond the descriptions on its website.

AxiLayer AI uses the words patent pending because applications are on file. Under 35 U.S.C. 292 the phrase is false only when no application is pending. AxiLayer AI does not describe its technology as patented.

2.2 What a U.S. provisional application does

• A provisional application starts a 12-month period. The period cannot be extended, and the application is not examined and never issues as a patent by itself (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, provisional application page).
• A later non-provisional application must claim the benefit of the provisional under 35 U.S.C. 119(e). A limited restoration is available in the United States if the later application is filed within 14 months, but that is an exception and not a plan (MPEP 211).
• Provisional applications are never published. Non-provisional applications are published about 18 months after the earliest priority date (MPEP 1120).
• The U.S. patent term is 20 years from the earliest non-provisional filing date. The provisional date is not counted (MPEP 2701). Article 33 of the TRIPS Agreement sets 20 years from filing as the minimum term that World Trade Organization members must provide.

2.3 Priority and the international route

The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property gives an applicant 12 months from a first filing to file the same invention in other member countries and claim the first filing date as the priority date. It also provides national treatment, which means foreign applicants receive the same treatment as nationals, and independence of patents, which means a patent granted or refused in one country does not control the outcome in another. WIPO reports 181 contracting parties as of 19 August 2026.

The Patent Cooperation Treaty lets an applicant file one international application that has effect in all contracting states. WIPO reports 159 contracting states as of 1 September 2026. A PCT application does not produce an international patent. It postpones the country-by-country decision, and patents are granted only by national or regional offices.

The PCT covers markets that matter to AxiLayer AI's customers and partners, including Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, Korea, China, India, the United Kingdom, the member states of the European Patent Organisation, Australia, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. WIPO lists four regional patent systems that can be reached through the PCT: the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), the Eurasian Patent Organization, the European Patent Organisation and the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI).

In Europe, the Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Court began operating on 1 June 2023. As of the most recent official lists, 18 member states participate, Romania having joined on 1 September 2024. Six states have signed the agreement without ratifying it: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Ireland and Slovakia. A European patent that is not made unitary remains a bundle of national patents.

2.4 Secrecy before filing, and what publication discloses

Most patent systems require that an invention be new at the filing date, so a public disclosure before filing can defeat protection. Grace periods for an inventor's own disclosure differ widely. The United States allows 12 months (35 U.S.C. 102(b)(1)(A)). WIPO's comparison table lists much narrower or conditional periods for the European Patent Office and the United Kingdom, and China's Patent Law allows 6 months in listed circumstances. Because of this variation, AxiLayer AI treats unpublished technical detail as confidential and shares it only under written agreement.

Publication also ends secrecy for whatever a published application discloses. That is why AxiLayer AI keeps implementation details that are not claimed in its applications, such as the regulatory corpus and detection logic, as trade secrets (Section 3).

2.5 Patent eligibility of software and AI inventions across jurisdictions

Whether a software-related or AI-related invention can be patented is decided country by country, on the claims as filed. The table summarizes official positions that have been verified against primary sources as of the review date. A provisional application is not examined, so nothing in the table is a finding about AxiLayer AI's applications.

Other countries have their own rules on computer programs, algorithms and business methods and are not summarized here.

2.6 Inventorship

Patent systems generally require a human inventor. In the United States, Thaler v. Vidal (Federal Circuit, 5 August 2022) holds that an inventor must be a natural person. On 28 November 2025 the USPTO rescinded its February 2024 guidance on AI-assisted inventions and replaced it with a single standard under which AI is a tool, only natural persons can be inventors and the test is human conception of the invention. China's Order No. 84 likewise states that only natural persons can be inventors. Organizations that use AI tools in development therefore keep records of the human contribution to each invention.

2.7 Foreign filing licences and export review

A U.S.-origin invention generally cannot be filed abroad until a foreign filing licence is granted or six months have passed from the U.S. filing (35 U.S.C. 184; 37 CFR 5.11). Filing a U.S. application is treated as a petition for that licence. A PCT application filed with the USPTO as receiving office is outside the licence requirement. Filing abroad without a licence can forfeit the U.S. patent and carries penalties (35 U.S.C. 185 and 186).

2.8 Maintenance and term

A patent is a national or regional right that must be maintained. In the United States, maintenance fees fall due at 3.5, 7.5 and 11.5 years after grant, with a six-month grace period at a surcharge, and the patent expires if they are unpaid. Other countries charge annual fees from filing or grant. In most countries the term is 20 years from the filing date, which is the minimum set by TRIPS Article 33.

3. Trade secrets

3.1 AxiLayer AI's position

The RegDef regulatory corpus, detection logic, evaluation method and evidence-chain implementation are trade secrets of AxiLayer AI, Inc. They are made available only under written agreement. AxiSentinel is delivered as a service, no source code is distributed, and every partner, client and pilot works under a mutual non-disclosure agreement.

3.2 What the law requires

The international baseline is Article 39 of the TRIPS Agreement, which protects undisclosed information that is secret, has commercial value because it is secret, and has been subject to reasonable steps to keep it secret. National laws follow the same three elements in different words. The practical consequence is that a trade secret is only as strong as the steps taken to keep it secret, and written confidentiality terms are the first of those steps.

Other countries protect confidential information through statute, through the law of confidence, or through both. They are not summarized here, and AxiLayer AI relies principally on contract wherever national law differs.

3.3 Reverse engineering, and why contracts control it

In the United States, reverse engineering is expressly outside the definition of improper means (18 U.S.C. 1839(6)(B)). The EU Directive lists lawful reverse engineering among permitted ways to obtain information, subject to its conditions. Korea and Thailand also treat reverse engineering of a lawfully obtained product as permitted. The consequence is that the law alone does not stop a licensee from analyzing a product it lawfully holds. The owner's control is the contract, which is why AxiLayer AI's agreements carry no-reverse-engineering and no-derivative-works terms and why AxiSentinel is delivered as a service and not as distributed code. In some countries the law limits how far a contract can restrict analysis, which is addressed in Section 6.

3.4 Information provided to regulators and customers

The EU AI Act requires authorities to treat information obtained from providers, including trade secrets and source code, as confidential (Article 78, with related provisions in Articles 21, 53(7) and 74(14)). The EU Data Act has applied since 12 September 2025 and, according to the European Commission's guidance, expects agreed confidentiality safeguards before trade secrets are shared. Customers that must provide documentation to authorities should therefore mark the material and rely on those confidentiality provisions.

3.5 Patents and trade secrets together

Patent protection requires disclosure of the invention. Trade secret protection requires non-disclosure. AxiLayer AI uses patent applications for the inventions described in Section 2 and keeps the corpus, detection logic, evaluation method and implementation detail that those applications do not claim as trade secrets. This is why technical detail beyond the published descriptions is shared only under a mutual non-disclosure agreement.

4. Copyright

4.1 AxiLayer AI's position

The AxiLayer platform is protected by copyright. The protected works are the software (both source code and object code), documentation, user interface, reports and deliverables, the original selection, structure and arrangement of the regulatory-requirement database, and the text, graphics and other content of this website. Copyright in these works is held by AxiLayer AI, Inc. All rights are reserved.

4.2 What copyright covers, and what it does not

Copyright protects original expression. It does not protect ideas, methods, processes, systems, algorithms, facts, or functionality as such. That limit appears in 17 U.S.C. 102(b), in Article 9(2) of the TRIPS Agreement, in Article 1(2) of the EU Software Directive 2009/24/EC, and in the Court of Justice's decision in SAS Institute v World Programming (C-406/10), which held that a program's functionality and its programming language are not protected. The U.S. Copyright Office states the same in Circular 61.

This notice therefore claims copyright in code, documentation, interface expression, reports, website content and the original selection and arrangement of the database. The underlying methods, detection logic and architecture are protected, to the extent the law allows, by the patent applications in Section 2 and by trade secret law in Section 3.

4.3 The international framework

• The Berne Convention gives protection automatically, with no registration or formality (Article 5(2)), and national treatment, so a work from a member country is protected in each other member country as that country protects its own authors (Article 5(1)). The minimum term is the life of the author plus 50 years (Article 7(1)), and many countries provide life plus 70. WIPO lists more than 175 member countries.
• The TRIPS Agreement requires computer programs to be protected as literary works under Berne (Article 10(1)) and requires protection of compilations of data that are original in selection or arrangement (Article 10(2)).
• The WIPO Copyright Treaty of 1996 confirms protection for computer programs (Article 4) and for original databases (Article 5), and requires legal remedies against circumventing technological protection measures and removing rights management information (Articles 11 and 12). More than 100 states are parties.
• The Universal Copyright Convention notice formula of the symbol, the year and the owner remains a recognized way to give notice.

There is no single international copyright. Each country applies its own law, including its own term, exceptions, ownership rules and remedies, to works that the treaties bring into protection.

4.4 United States

• Copyright vests in the author on creation of the work. Notice is optional since 1989, but a proper notice (the symbol, the year of first publication and the owner) defeats an innocent-infringer defense (17 U.S.C. 401). The phrase All rights reserved is not part of the U.S. notice and is harmless.
• For works of U.S. origin, registration with the Copyright Office is required before an infringement suit can be filed (17 U.S.C. 411(a); Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, 2019). Statutory damages and attorney fees are available only for infringement that begins after registration, or within three months of first publication if registered in that window (17 U.S.C. 412).
• Software can be registered with a deposit that redacts trade secret portions of the source code (37 CFR 202.20(c)(2)(vii)). Each version of a program is a separate work for registration purposes.
• Software written by employees within the scope of their employment is a work made for hire owned by the employer. Software written by independent contractors generally requires a signed written assignment (17 U.S.C. 101, 201(b) and 204(a)).
• The Digital Millennium Copyright Act prohibits circumvention of access controls and removal of rights management information (17 U.S.C. 1201 and 1202).
• In Google v. Oracle (2021), the Supreme Court assumed that the software declarations at issue were copyrightable and held that the copying was fair use. The decision turns on its facts and is not a rule that software interfaces are unprotected.

4.5 European Union

• Directive 2009/24/EC requires member states to protect computer programs as literary works (Article 1). The rightholder controls reproduction, translation, adaptation and distribution (Article 4). A lawful user may observe, study and test the functioning of a program to determine its underlying ideas (Article 5(3)), and decompilation is permitted only for interoperability and under the conditions in Article 6. Contract terms contrary to those provisions are null and void (Article 8).
• Directive 96/9/EC protects the structure of a database, as to its selection or arrangement, by copyright, and separately gives the maker of a database that involved substantial investment a 15-year sui generis right against extraction and re-utilization (Articles 3, 7 and 10). The sui generis right is available only to makers who are nationals of or resident in the EU, or companies formed there (Article 11). AxiLayer AI therefore relies on copyright and contract, and does not claim the sui generis right.
• Directive (EU) 2019/790 permits text and data mining for research under a mandatory exception that cannot be reserved against (Article 3), and for other uses unless the rightholder has expressly reserved its rights in an appropriate manner, such as machine-readable means (Article 4). AxiLayer AI makes that reservation in Section 4.9.

4.6 Laws, regulations and official documents

AxiLayer AI does not claim ownership of laws, regulations, standards-setting texts or other official documents. Article 2(4) of the Berne Convention leaves the protection of official texts of a legislative, administrative or legal nature to national law. In the United States, works of the federal government are not eligible for copyright (17 U.S.C. 105), and the Supreme Court held in Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org (2020) that the government edicts doctrine bars copyright in the official annotations that legislators produce. The European Commission's reuse policy permits reuse of EU legal texts under Decision 2011/833/EU. In the United Kingdom, Crown copyright and the Open Government Licence govern reuse of government material, and the terms of each source apply to reuse of its text.

What AxiLayer AI can protect is its own original contribution: the selection, structure and arrangement of the database, and its original annotations, descriptions and mappings. The Supreme Court held in Feist v. Rural (1991) that a compilation of facts receives protection only for its original selection or arrangement, and that the facts themselves remain free for others to use. Protection of a compilation is therefore thin. The value of the RegDef corpus, which lies in its coverage, accuracy and encoding, is protected principally by trade secret law and by contract.

4.7 AI-generated material and human authorship

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held in Thaler v. Perlmutter (2025) that copyright requires human authorship. The Copyright Office's January 2025 report on copyrightability concludes that purely AI-generated material is not protected, while human authorship in the selection, arrangement and modification of AI-assisted material can be. Reports and deliverables that include AI-assisted content are therefore protected to the extent of the human authorship they contain, and that human contribution is what AxiLayer AI relies on.

4.8 Other countries, ownership and third-party material

Countries that are parties to the Berne Convention and the TRIPS Agreement protect software as a literary work. Registration systems, exceptions for computational analysis, moral rights, and rules on who owns works made by employees and contractors differ. In many civil-law countries moral rights cannot be assigned and the employer's ownership of employee works depends on statute or contract. For that reason, written agreements that confirm ownership or assign rights are the dependable route in every country. Third-party and open-source components that are part of or accompany the platform remain under their own licences, which this notice does not change.

4.9 Copyright notice and reservation of rights

5. Trademarks

5.1 AxiLayer AI's position

AxiLayer AI, AxiSentinel and AxiReady are trademarks of AxiLayer AI, Inc. The registered-trademark symbol is used only for a mark that is registered in the country concerned. Where a mark is not registered, AxiLayer AI relies on the rights that use of the mark creates in the countries where the law gives them.

5.2 Territorial rights and filing systems

Trademark rights are territorial. A registration or a use-based right in one country does not extend to another. Systems differ in how a right arises, and that difference matters most to a company that is entering new markets. In first-use systems, rights arise from use, and registration confirms them. In first-to-file systems, rights generally go to the first party to apply, whoever used the mark first, which is how bad-faith filings by third parties occur.

5.3 The Madrid System

The Madrid System lets a trademark owner file one international application and designate member countries. WIPO lists 117 members covering 133 countries. An international registration depends on a basic mark in the home office (Protocol Article 2(1)). If the basic mark is cancelled within five years of the international registration, the international registration falls with it, which is the central attack risk (Article 6(3)), although it can be converted into national applications (Article 9quinquies). Registrations are renewed every 10 years (Article 7(1)). Each designated office has 12 months, or 18 months by declaration, to refuse protection (Article 5(2)). The Paris Convention gives a six-month priority period for trademarks, and a Madrid application filed within that period can claim the earlier filing date (Article 4 of the Protocol).

5.4 United States rules on symbols and enforcement

• The registered-trademark symbol may be used only after the USPTO registers a mark. Without that notice, profits and damages are unavailable against an infringer unless the infringer had actual notice of the registration (15 U.S.C. 1111). The TM symbol may be used for unregistered claims.
• A registration requires maintenance filings under Sections 8, 9 and 15 of the Lanham Act at the intervals the USPTO specifies.
• The Lanham Act also provides for claims of false designation of origin (15 U.S.C. 1125(a)), dilution of famous marks (1125(c)) and cybersquatting (1125(d)).
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection records only marks on the Principal Register for border enforcement. China's customs recordation requires a Chinese registration certificate.

A company name, a business registration and a domain name are not trademark registrations and do not by themselves create trademark rights.

6. Delivery and use restrictions

AxiSentinel is delivered as a service by AxiLayer AI, including in-region deployments. No source code is distributed, and no license to reproduce, reverse engineer or build derivative works is granted. Access to the platform is governed by the written agreement between AxiLayer AI and the customer.

Some laws limit how far a contract can restrict a lawful user. In the European Union, contract terms that exclude the rights in Article 5(2), Article 5(3) and Article 6 of Directive 2009/24/EC are null and void (Article 8). Nothing in this notice or in AxiLayer AI's agreements limits rights that applicable law gives and that cannot be excluded by contract.

Third-party and open-source components stay under their own licences. Software and technical data may also be subject to export-control laws, including the U.S. Export Administration Regulations and their encryption provisions (15 CFR 742.15), and recipients are responsible for complying with them.

7. Government funding and data rights

Government funding can change who holds rights in technology. The main regimes are summarized here because customers, partners and agencies ask about them.

7.1 United States: Bayh-Dole

The Bayh-Dole Act (35 U.S.C. 200 to 212; 37 CFR Part 401) allows a contractor to keep title to a subject invention, which is an invention conceived or first actually reduced to practice in the performance of work under a federal funding agreement (35 U.S.C. 201(e); 37 CFR 401.14). The contractor must disclose each subject invention to the agency, elect to retain title and file patent applications within the periods in 37 CFR 401.14(c): disclosure within two months after the inventor discloses it to the contractor's patent personnel, election within two years of disclosure, and filing within one year of election. The government receives a nonexclusive, nontransferable, irrevocable, paid-up licence to practice the invention for government purposes. The agency may exercise march-in rights in the circumstances listed in 35 U.S.C. 203, and exclusive licensees must observe the U.S. manufacturing preference in 35 U.S.C. 204. Subject inventions are reported through iEdison.

The AxiLayer AI applications described in Section 2 were filed before any government funding or SBIR application. Whether any particular invention is a subject invention depends on the facts and on the funding agreement, and is assessed under the agreement concerned.

7.2 SBIR and STTR data rights

The SBIR and STTR programs lapsed on 30 September 2025 and were reauthorized through 30 September 2031 by legislation signed on 13 April 2026, according to the Small Business Administration. The SBA Policy Directive provides a 20-year protection period for SBIR and STTR data, measured from award. For defense contracts, the DFARS rule effective 17 January 2025 provides that during the protection period the government receives limited rights in technical data and restricted rights in software, followed by perpetual government purpose rights. DFARS 252.227-7013 and 252.227-7014 define the rights categories, and DFARS 252.227-7017 requires an offeror to identify, before award, the technology that it developed at private expense and over which it asserts restrictions.

7.3 Other funding regimes

Under the Horizon Europe model grant agreement, results are owned by the beneficiary that generates them, subject to access rights (Article 16.2 and Annex 5). Innovate UK terms from October 2025 leave project intellectual property with the recipient, require exploitation in the United Kingdom for five years, and require compliance with national security and export-control law. Terms differ by programme and agreement, and the agreement governs.

8. Enforcement and remedies

Intellectual property rights are enforced in national or regional courts and agencies. There is no world court for patents, trademarks, trade secrets or copyright. The following points reflect the primary sources reviewed.

• Patents, United States: infringement remedies are in 35 U.S.C. 271 and 281 to 285. Once a pending application is published, 35 U.S.C. 154(d) can give the applicant a right to a reasonable royalty from an infringer who had actual notice of the published application, if a patent later issues with substantially identical claims. Marking and patent pending use are governed by 35 U.S.C. 287 and 292.
• Patents, Europe: the Unified Patent Court hears disputes concerning European patents in the participating states. A European patent can be opposed at the European Patent Office within nine months of its grant (Article 99 of the European Patent Convention). The Enforcement Directive 2004/48/EC sets common minimum standards for enforcement of intellectual property rights in the EU.
• Trade secrets: remedies include injunctions and damages in each jurisdiction in Section 3.2, and in the United States ex parte seizure and an International Trade Commission exclusion order for imports.
• Copyright: in the United States, registration is a prerequisite for suit on a U.S. work and for statutory damages (Section 4.4). In Berne countries, the author's right exists without registration and is enforced under national law.
• Trademarks: the remedies depend on the registration in the country concerned. Border measures need a recorded registration in the United States and in China.
• Contracts: agreements are the main way to extend protection across borders. Arbitral awards are generally enforceable internationally under the New York Convention, and the governing law and forum in each agreement decide which court or tribunal applies.

9. Sharing technical and patent material, and permissions

AxiLayer AI shares technical and patent material only under a mutual non-disclosure agreement. Every partner, client and pilot works under a mutual non-disclosure agreement with no-reverse-engineering and no-derivative-works terms.

Reproducing, adapting, republishing or training an AI model on AxiLayer AI's platform content, documentation, reports or website content requires written permission from AxiLayer AI. This notice does not restrict uses that the law allows without permission, such as quotation for criticism, reporting or review under fair use or equivalent exceptions. AxiLayer AI will consider permission requests sent to the address in Section 12.

10. Scope and limits of this notice

• The U.S. applications are provisional applications and are not examined. International protection is being pursued, and no international patent exists, because the PCT leads to national and regional grants.
• This notice does not state that any trademark is registered in any country. It states that the marks belong to AxiLayer AI, Inc.
• The legal summaries describe the law as reviewed on 4 October 2026 from the official sources in Section 11. Intellectual property law changes, particularly in software patent eligibility, artificial intelligence and copyright, and trademark law in China.
• This notice is general information and is not legal advice. It does not create a licence, a warranty or a contract. Consult qualified patent, trademark and copyright counsel in the relevant country before relying on any point in it.

11. Official sources

The figures and legal positions above come from the following official and primary sources.

Patents

• USPTO: provisional application for patent, and MPEP 211, MPEP 1120, MPEP 2701 and MPEP 140
• USPTO: maintain your patent
• WIPO: Paris Convention summary
• WIPO: PCT system summary, PCT time limits by office, PCT FAQs and list of PCT states
• WIPO: grace period comparison table
• Unified Patent Court: member states
• USPTO: subject matter eligibility, revised inventorship guidance for AI-assisted inventions (28 November 2025)
• UK Supreme Court: Emotional Perception AI v Comptroller [2026] UKSC 3
• CNIPA: Guidelines for Patent Examination amendments
• IP Australia: Patent Manual, JPO: AI-related case examples

Trade secrets

• TRIPS Agreement (WIPO Lex)
• 18 U.S.C. 1839, 18 U.S.C. 1836 and 18 U.S.C. 1833
• Directive (EU) 2016/943
• Trade Secrets (Enforcement, etc.) Regulations 2018
• Japan: Unfair Competition Prevention Act (Ministry of Justice translation)
• WIPO: Korea trade secret country sheet, Thailand Department of Intellectual Property: Trade Secrets Act
• AI Act Service Desk: Article 78, European Commission: Data Act FAQs

Copyright

• Berne Convention and WIPO Copyright Treaty (WIPO Lex)
• 17 U.S.C. chapter 4, Copyright Office Circular 61, 37 CFR 202.20 and Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, Part 2: Copyrightability
• Directive 2009/24/EC (software) and Directive 96/9/EC (databases)
• Court of Justice: SAS Institute v World Programming (C-406/10)

Trademarks

• WIPO: Madrid System members and Saudi Arabia joins the Madrid System
• WIPO Lex: Madrid Protocol, contracting parties and dates
• CNIPA: amended Trademark Law
• WIPO Lex: Thailand Trademark Act, U.S. Customs and Border Protection: IPR protection

Government funding

• 37 CFR 401.14 and 35 U.S.C. 201
• SBIR and STTR Policy Directive and DFARS final rule on SBIR data
• DFARS 252.227-7017 and 15 CFR 742.15

12. Contact

Questions about this notice, requests for permission, reports of suspected infringement, or requests to discuss technical material under a non-disclosure agreement can be sent to CFO@AxiLayerAI.com.