In both the fascinating cutting-edge of creative AI models like the ChatGPT chatbot and the DALL-E image generator as well as in the growing pervasiveness of household and industrial applications of AI systems like autonomous vehicles and intelligent virtual assistants, the prevalence and power of AI technologies are rapidly growing.
The rise of AI technologies is still well demonstrated by trends in patent applications. According to a survey by GlobalData, hundreds of thousands of patent applications for AI-related discoveries have been submitted in recent years, making AI the fastest-growing key technology sector in terms of global patent filings, with a 28% average annual growth rate from Q1 2018 to Q1 2022. Machine learning (ML) models, speech recognition, image analysis, and natural language processing systems have seen the highest volume of patent filings within the AI space. Other areas that have seen a spike in AI patenting include autonomous vehicles, robotics, medical devices, laboratory and assay equipment, bioinformatics, chemometrics, drug discovery, diagnostics, and personalised medicine.
The USPTO has also acknowledged the growing significance of patenting in the field of artificial intelligence. The USPTO launched its AI and Emerging Technology Partnership in June 2022. This joint initiative of the USPTO and the AI community is intended to “foster and protect innovation in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Emerging Technologies (ET) and bring those innovations to impact to enhance our country’s economic prosperity and national security as well as to solve global problems,” according to the USPTO. The USPTO’s patent eligibility advice has continued to support patent applicants in crafting patent-eligible claims to protect AI and ML technologies along with this engagement initiative.
Finally, despite the vital importance of patenting AI innovations, international patent offices and courts continue to concur that AI systems themselves cannot be credited as inventors under current patent laws. An AI system cannot be identified as an inventor on a patent in the US because it does not qualify as a “person” under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA), according to a ruling made by the Federal Circuit in August. The case is Thaler v. Vidal, 43 F.4th 1207. (Fed. Cir. 2022). The more challenging query, “whether inventions developed by humans with the assistance of AI are qualified for patent protection,” was postponed for another day. Id at 1213.
