Foundational patents in artificial intelligence

Abstract

Despite advocating openness, technology leaders have been patenting artificial intelligence (AI) inventions at an exponentially increasing rate. Patents on foundational techniques with broad applications have the potential to deter innovation in the field, should the privatization of key components of artificial intelligence be used to exclude third-party innovators. This chapter studies patent applications in the US and demonstrates the extent to which the field has grown over the last twenty years. It then seeks to explore foundational patents by focusing on triadic patents: patents filed jointly with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the European Patent Office, and the Japanese Patent Office. The results of this chapter indicate an increasingly globalized AI field. A proverbial land grab seems to be occurring; an increase in AI patenting, particularly the protection of triadic patents, illustrates industry players aggressively attempting to own the building blocks of a rapidly emerging market. A number of policy levers are presented, highlighting how the patent offices and courts can counter the patenting of foundational patents by relying on strict and narrow patentability standards.