Legal Issues with QR Codes

QR codes originally were developed for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing and was then standardized by the Association for Automatic Identification & Mobility (AIM), Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS) and International Standards Organisation (ISO).

QR Codes are open in the sense that the specifications of QR Codes are disclosed and that the patent right owned by Denso Wave is not exercised. It can be used by anybody free of charge as Denso has released the patent into the public domain. Data structure standard is not prerequisite for current usage (Soon, 2008).

In Ireland, there is nothing in the data protection legislation to prevent the use of QR codes. There have been various reports of misuse to the Data Protection Office of QR codes – for example, leading to malware sites (Data Protection Office, 2012). This means that QR Codes have not been tested for misuse and therefore there is no legal structure around them.

“Today's legal concepts, procedures, and structures are insufficient to keep pace with technological advance. Our legal systems need to develop to ensure that technology serves as many people as possible and disservices as few as possible” (Bach, Ivinson & Weeramantry 2001).