This event took place on April 22, 2021.

In this CLE webinar, Womble Bond Dickinson Partner Chris Mammen guided patent practitioners on overcoming the challenges, including patent eligibility and enablement, when seeking patent protection for artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Mammen and the panel also discussed what can be done to anticipate and minimize the risks of Section 101 or Section 112 rejections.

Tesla’s self-driving and self-parking cars, digital assistants such as Apple's Siri, Gmail's email filters and smart replies, social media streams, smart home devices, Netflix, and Spotify; these are all examples of technology that is used daily and through which AI systems are impacting our everyday life and decision making. AI systems present challenges for patent practitioners seeking patent protection.

What is patent eligible in the context of AI is not always clear. AI system inventions should be eligible for protection. Still, for patent eligibility purposes, such inventions must be described and claimed correctly given the current state of the law.

One hurdle for patent counsel is determining inventorship and who would hold the patent rights. Who invents something that is constructed in part by humans and in part by the system learning? Counsel may also face challenges when seeking to comply with the enablement requirement under Section 112. Structural claim limitations may be used to strengthen patents for AI systems and would benefit applicants by producing valid and enforceable patents.

Mammen was joined in this 90-minute Strafford webinar by Dina Blikshteyn of Haynes and Boone and Jones Day’s Carl Kukkonen. The panel reviewed these and other key issues:

  • What hurdles must patent counsel overcome to demonstrate inventorship with AI systems?
  • How can patent counsel meet the requirements under Sections 101 and 112 in AI systems patent applications?
  • What steps should patent counsel take to minimize the likelihood of Section 101 or Section 112 rejections?

 

*This event was not hosted by Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP. We encourage all of our attorneys to be actively involved in outside organizations as both leaders and presenters. Our attorney was serving as a presenter at this event. Any registration fee for this event was set by the outside organization and not by Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP.