Associate Dean Daryl Lim comments on legal gaps in brain-computer interface regulation

July 2025—The Debrief interviewed Associate Dean Daryl Lim on the legal, ethical, and policy challenges posed by brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies for an article titled "Noland Arbaugh, Neuralink’s First Brain Interface Recipient, Reflects on Neurotechnology, Ethics, and Identity." His insights highlighted the inadequacy of existing legal frameworks to address the privacy and autonomy issues raised by this emerging field.

Associate Dean Lim emphasized that neural data, a product of BCI technology, reflects dimensions of personhood that current privacy and health data laws fail to fully capture. He argued for the creation of a new legal category specific to neural data, integrating concerns such as cognitive liberty and mental autonomy. He also proposed a coordinated, interdisciplinary governance approach that extends beyond the Food and Drug Administration's role and includes agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and civil rights offices to develop effective oversight and safeguard against potential harms.

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Daryl Lim is the H. Laddie Montague Jr. Chair in Law at Penn State Dickinson Law. He is also the Associate Dean for Research and Innovation and Founding Director of the Intellectual Property (IP) Law and Innovation Initiative. At the university level, he is a co-hire at the Institute of Computational and Data Sciences and an affiliate at the Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence.

Professor Lim is an award-winning author, observer, and commentator on national and global trends in IP and competition policy and how they influence and are influenced by law, technology, economics, and politics. He helps policymakers, attorneys, corporate counsel, scholars, and the public understand the world around them. He is a founding member of the Global IP Alliance and its local chapters in Pennsylvania and Illinois. In addition, he serves as Co-Chair of the University Education Committee in the US IP Alliance.

In December 2022, the American Law Institute elected Professor Lim to its membership based on demonstrated excellence and outstanding professional achievement. In 2023, the US Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission recognized him as “a leading expert in antitrust law and economics” and the IAM Strategy 300, a guide to the industry pioneers with “exceptional skill sets, as well as profound insights into the development, creation, and management of IP value,” named him to its World’s Leading IP Strategists 2023 list. In 2024, he was appointed to the consultative group advising the United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence. In 2025, he received the IP Professor of the Year Award at the Global Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence & Technology Conclave & Awards.