GATE research cited in the first generative AI case before the Court of Justice of the European Union
How can Bulgaria establish an effective national framework for regulating artificial intelligence without creating additional administrative barriers to innovation? This is the central question addressed in the expert analysis Priorities for the Legal Regulation of Artificial Intelligence in Bulgaria, prepared by Ivo Emanuilov, Head of the Experimental Regulation and Policy Lab at GATE Institute, and Katerina Yordanova, a legal expert and researcher at GATE.
Ivo Emanuilov presented the key proposals outlined in the analysis to the Parliamentary Committee on Innovation and Digital Transformation. One of the main recommendations is the introduction of a general experimentation clause into Bulgarian legislation. This mechanism would allow innovative solutions to be tested temporarily, under clearly defined conditions, within the framework of national administrative requirements. The proposed approach includes specific safeguards to protect fundamental rights, personal data, health and human life, while ensuring continued compliance with applicable EU law.
The authors stress that Bulgaria’s national regulatory framework must be aligned with the EU Artificial Intelligence Act, without duplicating its provisions or introducing divergent standards. According to the analysis, it is important to distinguish between measures designed to implement the EU regulation and national policies aimed at fostering the development of artificial intelligence.
GATE researchers are also contributing to the development of the legal framework for AI at the European level. On 3 November 2026, First Advocate General Maciej Szpunar of the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered his Opinion in Case C-250/25, Like Company v Google Ireland Limited – the first generative AI case to reach the Court of Justice. The dispute concerns claims by a Hungarian online publisher that its articles have been used by Google’s Gemini chatbot without authorisation.
Among the academic sources cited in the Advocate General’s Opinion is an interdisciplinary paper by Ivo Emanuilov, co-authored with Professor Thomas Margoni of KU Leuven. Published in 2024, the research examines the phenomenon known as memorisation in AI models, whereby language models may reproduce verbatim passages from texts used in their training.
Whether an AI model itself contains copies of protected works is one of the key and widely debated issues in contemporary copyright law. In his Opinion, Advocate General Szpunar calls for caution in determining whether memorised content should be regarded as a reproduction stored within the model itself. He questions whether the statistical patterns encoded in a model’s parameters can be treated as copies of protected works. At the same time, he acknowledges that an AI-generated output reproducing all or a substantial part of a protected work, verbatim or nearly verbatim, may itself constitute copyright infringement. This assessment would have to be made on a case-by-case basis.
The Opinion also addresses the circumstances in which AI chatbots may infringe the rights of press publishers by retrieving and reusing online publications to generate answers to users’ queries. In particular, it examines whether the chatbot reproduces the original publication’s distinctive form of expression in a recognisable way, rather than merely reporting the facts it contains.
The Advocate General’s Opinion provides important guidance for the consideration of the case and places legal questions arising from the development of generative AI in a broader judicial context. The citation of Ivo Emanuilov’s research highlights the importance of interdisciplinary work at the intersection of law and computer science in shaping European case law.
GATE Institute is home to the Experimental Regulation and Policy Lab (ERPL), headed by Ivo Emanuilov. It is one of only a small number of laboratories of its kind in Europe and the first of its kind in Bulgaria. The Lab combines specialised technological infrastructure with interdisciplinary expertise in law, technology, ethics and public policy.
The Lab enables companies and research organisations to test the feasibility, performance and innovation potential of new products, services and business models in a controlled environment. Its team also provides expert guidance on the legal, regulatory and ethical aspects of emerging technological solutions.
The work of the Experimental Regulation and Policy Lab is also valuable to public authorities. By testing specific technological applications and providing feedback to the relevant institutions, the Lab helps build an evidence base and generate knowledge about the opportunities, emerging risks and impacts of artificial intelligence and big data. This allows regulatory decisions to be informed not only by preliminary assessments but also by findings from practical experimentation.
The Lab also aims to support the development of Bulgaria’s national AI regulatory sandbox, as envisaged by the EU Artificial Intelligence Act. It can provide a foundation for cooperation between businesses, research organisations and supervisory authorities, while helping them better understand the practical challenges involved in implementing the new rules.
Other key recommendations in the analysis by Ivo Emanuilov and Katerina Yordanova include building the technical and expert capacity required for effective regulatory implementation and establishing mechanisms to better support innovative companies, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises.
Responsible AI development and deployment, alongside the role of data and cooperation between academia, business and the public sector, will also feature prominently at the international forum UpToGATE 2026: Powered by Data, organised by GATE Institute on 17 November in Sofia.
The forum will bring together representatives of the research community, business and public institutions to explore how data and artificial intelligence can contribute to Europe’s development. The programme will address topics including European data spaces, trustworthy and human-centric AI, digital twins, smart healthcare, and partnerships between research organisations and industry.
Through its expertise in big data, artificial intelligence and experimental regulation, GATE Institute contributes to the development of solutions that combine technological opportunities with the necessary legal and ethical safeguards.