Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet

The Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet is a specialized division of the House Judiciary Committee that handles a narrow but increasingly important slice of the committee's work. As a subcommittee, it conducts initial hearings and reviews legislation before matters move to the full committee, which alone can report bills to the House floor.

This subcommittee's jurisdiction covers the administration of federal courts, judicial ethics, federal rules of evidence and procedure, and the full spectrum of intellectual property law including patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets. In recent years, its scope has expanded to encompass artificial intelligence and information technology policy—reflecting Congress's growing focus on how AI intersects with innovation, competition, and legal frameworks.

Chaired by Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) with Ranking Member Henry C. "Hank" Johnson (D-GA), the subcommittee has held several significant hearings in 2025. These include "Protecting Our Edge: Trade Secrets and the Global AI Arms Race," which examined how to safeguard U.S. artificial intelligence development from foreign espionage; "AI at a Crossroads: A Nationwide Strategy or Californication?," which debated whether AI regulation should be federal or state-level; and "Fiscal Accountability and Oversight of the Federal Courts," addressing court system operations. The subcommittee also held hearings on foreign abuse of U.S. courts and intellectual property issues related to AI-assisted inventions and copyright law.