AI in an IP World What, When, How, Where?

Patent Offices around the world are holding consultations with their AI and IP communities to ensure the patent system remains fit for purpose and the complexity of the issues discussed by the IP community is advancing in step with the maturation of AI field. In this issue, Rob Wiseman reports on a recent UK consultation. This year, AIPPI sought views from the international patent community on inventiveness and sufficiency of disclosure in AI inventions addressing whether use of AI has an impact on the inventive step threshold, whether the concept of “skilled person” needs to be adapted and whether the framework for assessing sufficiency of disclosure is still fit for purpose for both core AI inventions and AI-assisted inventions. These and other ongoing discussions and consultations will continue to shape changes in patent law and its application with respect to AI inventions. Patent Offices continue to review how computer-implemented inventions, including AI inventions, are handled and to provide additional guidance for both patent examiners and patent applicants in handling AI patent applications.

We have seen, and continue to see, a rapid increase in the number of patent applications for AI inventions being filed with patent offices around the world. Whilst this will mean an increase in the number of cases that are rejected, such as the UK High Court case decision reviewed by Mark Bentall, it is important to remember large numbers of AI patent applications are granted. The UKIPO reported at a CIPA computer-implemented inventions webinar in May 2021 that, whilst there are some differences in the grant rate for AI inventions compared to the overall grant rate for different patent offices around the world, for the majority of countries any difference is small.

Our experiences suggest that AI patent applications are easier to progress in China, Japan and Korea. The US Patent Office is currently viewing AI-related applications very favourably and the number of AI-related patent applications filed and granted by the European Patent Office is definitely on the increase. As with any other computer-implemented invention, many, but not all, AI inventions are patentable. The outcome of any AI-based patent application will depend on the details of the invention as well as how different it is to devices and methods that have gone before.

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