Design Patent Search Tool is Latest AI Feature for Examiners to Address USPTO Backlog

Today, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it was launching a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool for design patent examiners. DesignVision, a centralized tool for querying multiple industrial design data sources, is the latest move in the USPTO’s overall effort to address the patent examination backlog, which has involved both the introduction of AI-powered examination tools like DesignVision and the streamlining of Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) activities through evolving standards for discretionary denials.

AI Design Patent Examiner Tool Allows Centralized Searching of Federated Data Sources

According to the USPTO, DesignVision will function as a tool available to design patent examiners through the Patents End-to-End (E2E) search suite. This AI-powered tool provides a single interface for querying data for design patents, trademarks and industrial designs from more than 80 global IP registers, including those at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). Examiners are able to build queries using up to seven uploaded images, control weighting of visual features and focus on specific features in search queries, and filter results by text and classification.

To ensure that examiner use of this new AI tool is made public, the USPTO is also establishing procedures for recording DesignVision search data in the design patent’s application file. Consistent with Manual of Patent Examining Procedures (MPEP) § 719.05, which requires examiners to record prior art search details, the USPTO will include clear indications of DesignVision use in examiner search histories, with information about which application images were used in queries appearing in the Search Notes section of a design patent’s application wrapper. While actual images won’t be contained in the search history summary report to protect confidentiality, the number of images uploaded to DesignVision and information on what filters were applied and the search results will be included in those reports.

More AI Tools, Streamlined PTAB Processes to Address Patent Examination Backlog

Although limited to design patent applications, DesignVision is only the latest AI-powered tool that the USPTO has rolled out for its patent examiner corps in recent years. In March 2020, the USPTO began rolling out to a subset of examiners the “More Like This” feature, which utilizes an AI algorithm to generate domestic and foreign patent documents similar to an anchor document to better identify potential prior art. By late 2022, most USPTO patent examiners also had access to “Similarity Search,” which performs a similar function in generating potential prior art documents but based on specifications and other input from the patent application. As with DesignVision, these tools are expected to augment examiner search processes and not entirely replace typical prior art search procedures.

Comments made during Congressional hearings by John Squires, President Trump’s nominee to serve as the next USPTO Director, indicate that the transition to more AI tools for examiners will likely continue. Addressing statistics on the high number of “defective” patents issued by the USPTO, Squires called for the adoption of more AI tools to ensure that the Office is issuing patents of “provable quality” during remarks to the Senate Judiciary Committee in late May. In written responses following that hearing, Squires added that such AI tools would help the Office address its backlog of unexamined patent applications and eliminate burdensome cases from the system.

Under the current leadership of Acting USPTO Director Coke Morgan Stewart, reductions to the unexamined patent application backlog have been achieved alongside, and perhaps as a result of, streamlined operations at the PTAB. This March, Stewart announced a new workload management process through which her office handles all requests for discretionary denials in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings, which make up the vast bulk of PTAB operations. Through the middle of June, a survey of Director decisions on discretionary denial showed that many discretionary decisions denying IPR institution were swayed by the petitioner’s ability to challenge the patent years earlier as well as the “settled expectations” of the patent owner in their patent right. The USPTO’s preference for IPR challenges early in a patent’s lifecycle tracks with public remarks recently made by Stewart indicating that the Office wants to see patent challengers provide more third-party prior art submissions during examination and use earlier post-grant review (PGR) proceedings instead of challenging patents years after issue through IPR.

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Author: kjpargeter
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