The Internet of Things: Trends and Development Prospects

Abstract

This article looks at the trends and development prospects of the Internet of Things. The Internet of Things is viewed as a strategic factor in economic growth that leads to the emergence of new business segments, changes in the existing business models, the structure of industry markets, economy, and society in general, and evolution of the legal matter. The newly developed socio-economic relations are transforming into legal relations. Smart contracts suggest looking at the classical legal doctrine of contractual law from a different angle. The objective of the research is to examine the specific features and development prospects of the Internet of Things, analyze the existing frameworks of its legal coverage, their advantages and disadvantages, and suggest optimal conditions for the regulation of the Internet of Things. In the course of the creation of this article, the following methods are used: methods of gathering and studying individual facts; the generalization method; the method of scientific abstraction; the method of pattern recognition; methodological objectivity, specificity, and pluralism. According to the conclusion made in this article, the Internet of Things represents a network of identified objects that interact with each other and with the external environment via the Internet and embedded systems without human involvement. The usage of the Internet of Things in the context of big data leads to information legal relations when information can serve as an object of economic turnover. At the same time, from the perspective of civil law, exchange of information is viewed as rendering service or relations connected with results of intellectual activity, including databases and know-how. However, these concepts do not apply to the sphere of the Internet of Things. Thus, it is necessary to develop an approach that would make provisions for a legal framework allowing defining information as a subject of civil transactions.