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Only real people can patent inventions – not AI, US Government says

cnn.com

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Re: Only real people can patent inventions – not AI, US Government says

#31

Post by im3w1l »

teeray wrote: post #23
tivert wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> AI could, however, poison the well for human patents, by making inventions and putting them into public view. Feb 29, 2025, Washington, DC: "A Federal Court ruled today that AI-generated text does not qualify as prior-art...."

If it isn't considered prior art, then that de-facto makes it possible to patent AI-generated content by laundering them through humans.

I think that's probably expected and also not a big deal. As long as there is a human in the loop it becomes rate limited, saving people from having to look for prior art in some exabyte shit heap.

Re: Only real people can patent inventions – not AI, US Government says

#32

Post by yusml »

nightski wrote: post #25

Regulating source of inspiration is going to be extraordinarily difficult.

True. It may sound dystopian but maybe with BCIs, in the future, we could scan human brains to to check if they used an LLM in the past before they can apply for a patent.

Re: Only real people can patent inventions – not AI, US Government says

#33

Post by JohnFen »

romeros wrote: post #11
JohnFen wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> demonstrating that the act of creation isn't special. And that undermines categories of justifications for IP. The purpose of patents is simply to encourage invention and discourage keeping inventions a secret. It's not premised on the "act of creation being special". The way this is most likely to play out is that humans will use AI as tools to help them invent things, not that AI will invent things all by itself.…

I thought the purpose was to make sure other don't benefit from your own hardwork.

That's not the purpose, that's the carrot the patent system gives in exchange for the invention being disclosed and ultimately (within a couple of decades) made available for general use.

The purpose of the patent system, really, is to benefit society, not inventors.

Re: Only real people can patent inventions – not AI, US Government says

#34

Post by vertis »

tivert wrote: post #12
pfdietz wrote: post #2

AI could, however, poison the well for human patents, by making inventions and putting them into public view. Let's have LLMs churn out millions of discoveries, stick them on a public web site, then use that as a resource to kill other patents.

> AI could, however, poison the well for human patents, by making inventions and putting them into public view. Feb 29, 2025, Washington, DC: "A Federal Court ruled today that AI-generated text does not qualify as prior-art...."

No, I wrote all this myself...

Re: Only real people can patent inventions – not AI, US Government says

#35

Post by whaleofatw2022 »

Delumine wrote: post #26
KoolKat23 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You misunderstand it, you can use AI or whatever as a tool but the patent must be applied for under your name with you as the creator.

I don't see a reason why anyone would want to patent their invention under an LLM though

The thought that crosses my mind, is an AI company could try to put in TOS such a requirement, so that they could get royalties.

Re: Only real people can patent inventions – not AI, US Government says

#37

Post by hk__2 »

lallysingh wrote: post #14
Delumine wrote: post #10

One thing I never understood.. is who actually checks for honesty in this space? For example we heard AI can't patent inventions, or copyright pictures/images. But how do you prove that my picture, or invention even used AI? If I remove watermarks from AI pictures, either through code or photoshop; Or just credit myself for the invention (I made it up in my head), how is this enforced? I see the only way of this AI s…

If someone challenged your patent, they can try to prove that you used an AI.

> If someone challenged your patent, they can try to prove that you used an AI.

That not enough, they also have to prove that the AI did most of the work. From the article:

> On Tuesday, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) said that to obtain a patent, a real person must have made a “significant contribution” to the invention

This seems logical; it would be foolish (and impossible!) to completely forbid people to use AI.

Re: Only real people can patent inventions – not AI, US Government says

#38

Post by suby »

whaleofatw2022 wrote: post #35
Delumine wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see a reason why anyone would want to patent their invention under an LLM though

The thought that crosses my mind, is an AI company could try to put in TOS such a requirement, so that they could get royalties.

This is a very good ruling then, from that perspective.

Re: Only real people can patent inventions – not AI, US Government says

#39

Post by AnimalMuppet »

bediger4000 wrote: post #4
pfdietz wrote: post #2

AI could, however, poison the well for human patents, by making inventions and putting them into public view. Let's have LLMs churn out millions of discoveries, stick them on a public web site, then use that as a resource to kill other patents.

Doesn't your scheme point out contradictions in "intellectual property"? That is, a machine can churn out a discovery, demonstrating that the act of creation isn't special. And that undermines categories of justifications for IP. The machines in question aren't motivated to create by a government granted monopoly on the fruits of their creation. The act of creating the invention isn't special - a machine did it. No n…

A machine can churn out plausible maybe-discoveries - things that may not be true, may not be workable, and may not be useful. Or, they may be all of the above. A huge mass of maybe-discoveries is actually not a very useful thing. Within it there are useful things, and (many more) useless things. Figuring out which is which is going to take a lot of work. Until someone puts in that work, the unfiltered spew of "ideas" is very close to noise.

Re: Only real people can patent inventions – not AI, US Government says

#40

Post by bee_rider »

Delumine wrote: post #26
KoolKat23 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You misunderstand it, you can use AI or whatever as a tool but the patent must be applied for under your name with you as the creator.

I don't see a reason why anyone would want to patent their invention under an LLM though

Someone tried to do it already.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/10/us-co...

I think Dr Thaler is trying to make a philosophical point.

But I wonder if in the corporate space it would be desirable to have a patent that is just immediately assigned to the non-sentient AI? (In general I wonder this about AI’s, they seem to be a way to give the company itself, beyond the humans which compose it, the ability to make decisions and create things).

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