If you were unable to join us in person at IPWatchdog Studios for Artificial Intelligence Masters™ 2024, a part of the IPWatchdog Masters™ series, register now to watch the broadcast of the Using AI to Discover and Protect IP panel. This panel was recorded on March 5, 2024.

Artificial intelligence (AI) enabled solutions are revolutionizing every stage of the innovation process. AI is and can continue to accelerate innovation and improve efficiency, but using AI to discover innovation is not without some risk. Patent Offices around the world, including the United States Patent and Trademark Office, have determined that an AI cannot be listed as an inventor. These rules likely do not apply to the scenario where AI is a joint inventor with a real person, but how much must a real person contribute to be a joint inventor? Or, perhaps it is better to ask about the specificity necessary from the human user to the AI—how much specificity is enough to warrant a finding of conception by the individual to make the individual a joint inventor with the AI? And then there are questions about whether it is better to seek patent protection for the discoveries powered by AI, or whether it makes more sense to keep those valuable assets as trade secrets, assuming that is even possible.

This panel will discuss the issues surrounding the use of AI to discover and how to determine which avenue of IP protection to pursue once discovery is made.