Worldwide Scenario and Legal Aspects of AI Patent Filing
Posted On
In the present 21st century, the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is omnipresent in diverse spheres of human life. Owing to this, not all but most AI experts and innovators today are rushing towards creating their Intellectual Property (IP) portfolio in this area. All these facts have led to a wide range of AI and ML-related patent filing.
According to many recent reports, ML and AI-based Patent Applications have quadrupled in the last few years. This remarkable increase is a result of the widespread use of these advanced technologies in almost all fields.
Scenario of AI Patent Filing in India
Along with being one of the fastest developing economies in the world, India shows a keen interest in technological growth as well. For instance, NITI Aayog, the premier policy ‘Think Tank’ of the Government of India, in June 2018 had published a discussion paper -“AIforAll” – on the National Strategy for AI. With this and many other efforts by the Indian government and Intellectual Property Right (IPR) administrators, AI has become a new target for filing Patent Registration Applications in India. In the present times, it is in the top countries that are filings in specific categories, including
- Natural Language Processing (NLP) and
- Computer Vision
Although India has been placed at 8th position for the first filing in the year 2015, still it achieved 5th place in the total patent filings related to AI. Microsoft, Accenture, Tata, and HCL Technologies are amongst the top companies involved in filing the maximum number of Patent Applications in India. In short, these four firms are amongst the top patent filers in India.
Worldwide Scenario of AI Patent Filing
As per WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) Technology Trends, following are some key highlights showcasing the global scenario:
- The United States of America possesses the highest number of AI-based patent applications.
- China, with not much lesser number of filings, is closely following the USA.
- Besides IBM that has the world’s largest AI-related patent portfolio, BT group with 86 patent families is the top UK player.
- Magic Pony Technology, the company which was acquired by Twitter in 2016, also has a highly specialized AI-related portfolio
- US businesses have surpassed the British patent applicants to be the top application filers at the UK’s Intellectual Property Office as probably the maximum numbers of AI patent applicants are from the US.
- AI-based technologies are the key drivers for increasing the percentage of patent filings worldwide.
Legal Aspects of AI Patent Filing
Some vital legal aspects of AI-related Patent Applications Filing in the global landscape are as follows:
Europe
As per some new guidelines issued by the European Patent Office (EPO), AI and ML are based on the computational models and algorithms that are of an abstract mathematical nature. Hence, to quantify for Patent Registration, an invention must possess technical characteristics that can associate with a technical field and technical problem.
UK
According to the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act, the computer-generated works are those generated by computers such that there is no human creator. It also illustrates how this affects the authorship, by citing that the author shall be considered as the person who should undertake the arrangements essential for the creation of the work.
China
In China, the patentability of AI-based inventions hasn’t been actively discussed yet. Moreover, the Copyright Law of China doesn’t include Copyright Protection for machine-generated works, as it’s extremely debatable. Nevertheless, as large numbers of patent applications based on AI are filed, it is being predicted that the nation will soon intensify the deliberation.
Japan
Japan has not yet concluded as to whether AI-based works should obtain Patent Protection or not. Nonetheless, the Japanese Patent Office has recently provided some case examples (both in English and Japanese languages) of AI-related technologies.
Singapore
When it comes to Singapore, IP policies appear resting in the middle-of-the-road, i.e., neither minimalist nor maximalist. The experts argued that these sorts of policies helped Singapore to thrive as a nation over the last 50 years. Singapore recognizes that AI will reach its full potential only if the public trusts it, and thus, released a framework for its ethical use.
Hopefully, this up-to-date information regarding the current legal aspects and global scenario of AI-related patent filing will prove beneficial for you. It can help you in coming up with AI-based creative and unique work. It can also aid you in determining where and how to protect your new and useful creation. For more visit: https://www.kashishipr.com/
Don’t forget to follow us on social media:
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/kashishipr/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/kashishipr
Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/company/kashishipr/
Pinterest – https://www.pinterest.com/kashishipr/
Tumblr – https://kashishipr.tumblr.com/
