Posts Tagged: "artificial intelligence"

The idea that all software is obvious is a theoretical argument that doesn’t just border on the scattological, it wades right into the sewer. Consider artificial intelligence. If AI, which requires the use of software algorithms, is supposed to augment human intelligence and provide us with answers to questions we can’t figure out without the use of AI, how is that at all obvious? What about IBM’s Watson cognitive computing platform? … When the highest court in the land incorporates such backward-minded patterns of thought which allows them to say that “At its most basic, a computer is just a calculator capable of performing mental steps faster than a human could,” the U.S. patent system must be a relative paradise to Duda and other anti-patent Luddites who believe that software inventions cannot and should not be patentable at all.

A high ranking Chinese official has announced that the Chinese government rejected a request from the United States to end its subsidization of industries identified by the Made in China 2025 initiative. These key industry sectors are areas where technological development is very important and as such, they’ve been at the center of allegations over the forced transfer of patented technologies to Chinese domestic firms as well as outright theft of trade secrets. The Chinese government has responded to concerns over the Made in China initiative with one senior economic official defending the program as open to foreign and private companies according to a report by Hong Kong’s English daily The Standard.

The patent boom China has been experiencing is easy to explain. China as a country has been unwavering in its support for domestic patent production in recent years. Indeed, the Chinese government has been actively encouraging not only increased innovation that makes it more likely there will be patentable innovations, but that government has been aggressively incentivizing increased patent filings. Incentives include subsidizing patent filing fees, providing rewards for patent filings, and tax credits that are tied to patent output. In many ways, China’s innovation economy is a near photo-negative of the current iteration of the U.S. patent system.

Over the next few years, the most interesting intellectual property trend to watch will be what happens with new patent applications. The number of utility patent applications filed in the United States declined in 2015 (compared with 2014) and again in 2017 (compared with 2016). If the downward slide continues, will this be due to smarter filing strategies, or will it be because less emphasis is being put on patents? Will it be because more emphasis is being placed on trade secrets? Is it because of an unfavorable climate in the United States for certain types of inventions? Filings in other parts of the world are on the rise at a time when U.S. utility applications are either stagnant or in decline. Could it be because patent applicants are moving elsewhere?

In 2017, 48 percent of the world’s entire equity funding for AI startups was located in China. The U.S. was in second-place, lagging behind at 38 percent of global equity funding for AI startups. Although the U.S. still held the lead in total AI funding as well as the largest number of AI firms, this indicates that the Chinese will be a huge player in the AI sector in the coming years and could even surpass our nation’s research and development in the field.

Technology industry leaders and consumers will find it valuable to integrate disparate AI technologies. As AI becomes less siloed, they will discover that when these different AI technologies are integrated they can deliver more than the sum of their parts… Traditional industries like professional services, including law firms, insurance firms, etc., who implement AI technologies will see a large increase in employee morale and retention. Instead of being bogged down with boring, routine tasks, employees will have the opportunity to focus on more engaging, fulfilling work. Wallqvist says that this will prompt more firms to adopt AI, in order to keep employees from leaving their firm for another that is utilizing AI to reduce the amount of low-value, tedious work done by their employees.

IBM inventors received a record number of U.S. patents in 2017, again blowing past their own previous record to sail past 9,000 issued patents. Over the last 25 years IBM inventors have received patents for such transformative ideas as secure credit card transactions, guiding the visually-impaired using RFID, the world’s fastest supercomputers and earthquake detectors. With more than a quarter-century of innovation under its belt, IBM has continued to work on the most contemporary, relevant problems that exist today. This year alone IBM inventors obtained patents in areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, Blockchain, Cybersecurity and Quantum Computing technologies.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a plot point in futuristic sci-fi novels and films. In many aspects of our lives, machines are increasingly performing tasks previously handled by human intelligence. The current and potential applications of AI span a breadth of industries… Whether it’s patent search, online advertising or aviation, AI helps by acting as a multiplier for human function and creativity. As humans continue to innovate, producing an overwhelming amount of work which translates into an incredible amount of data, AI will be the key to decoding and uncovering necessary information.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a technology with promise for decades. The ability to manipulate huge volumes of data quickly and efficiently, identifying patterns and quickly analyzing the most optimal solution can be applied to thousands of day-to-day scenarios. However, it is set to come of age in the era of big data and real time decisions – where AI can provide solutions to age old issues and challenges.

It’s safe to say that most sectors will undergo significant disruption as a result of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. AI will not only disrupt our business models but it will also disrupt our legal framework for the creation and exploitation of intellectual property (IP) rights, giving rise to new IP challenges for those seeking to develop and deploy new AI systems.

In mid-April, Cambridge, MA-based software developer Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) unveiled the Pega Intelligent Virtual Assistant, an AI tool which uses natural language processing to create responsive chatbots for a variety of business scenarios.

Historically, legal decisions have dismissed the notion of a machine or autonomous program being the inventor. In fact, as a recent contribution to Lexology states, “Congress has stated that the Patent Act is intended to ‘include anything under the sun that is made by man.’” However, with the increasing use of AI to augment the pace and scope of innovation, questions arise as to who owns the invention and subsequent IP rights in cases where AI is involved… However, as a new and emerging technology, artificial intelligence is a hot topic of discussion and calls for greater oversight and regulation of the technology are growing louder. Going beyond liability and public safety concerns, some pundits suggest that if legislators don’t act quickly, AI could lead to the most dramatic erosion of IP that the modern era has seen thus far.

Although law firms have traditionally been slow to adopt technology, a 2015 survey conducted by Williams Lea Tag and Sandpiper Partners LLC reported that 64 percent of law firms now believe investing in technology is a priority. Attorneys are using technology to personalize connections with clients, automatically update legal documents, and improve operational efficiency—all of which frees up valuable time for client work, according to Law Technology Today. This is especially true for IP attorneys as they are on the front lines of technological growth. However, rather than implementing a variety of disparate solutions and falling victim to application gluttony, IP attorneys need an enterprise class solution that provides the breadth of capabilities needed to perform the exacting task of IP prosecution and management.

The absurd way in which important players in the U.S. patent system view the patentability of software innovations will undoubtedly harm our country’s chances of benefiting economically from the coming AI boom. Which is too bad, because that same Accenture study on AI’s economic benefits to the UK predicts that AI could add as much as $8.3 trillion to the American economy, thanks in no small part to “a strong entrepreneurial business climate and advanced infrastructure position.” But that strong entrepreneurial business climate is undercut by the weakening of patent protections for software, which makes up much of the foundation of artificial intelligence technologies.

JP Morgan has created revolutionary software capable of doing in seconds the same work that it would take a large team of lawyers 360,000 hours to complete. Clearly, this extraordinary software solution for engaging in tedious contract review is nothing more than an abstract idea and is not the type of thing that can be patented in America. The United States Supreme Court has put an end to these types of revolutionary innovations being patented, and if the hard working patent examiners at the United States Patent and Trademark Office make a mistake and issue a patent on such a ridiculously simple innovation that a second year engineering student could clearly have programmed over a weekend while sipping latte’s at the corner coffee shop the PTAB, some district court or the Supreme Court will step in and set the record straight.