USPTO experts discuss new findings and growth potential in AI and emerging technologies.
The US Patent and Trademark Office invests in research, development and deployment of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies to discover new process improvements.
To do this, the agency aims to accelerate the creation of innovative solutions that will descend to the mission level.
“What we focus on is making innovation a success”, Kathi Vidal, said Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and director of USPTO during the agency’s inaugural AI and Emerging Technologies Partnership Series on Wednesday. “We want to drive innovation, especially in key areas such as AI and emerging technologies.”
USPTO is currently looking to strengthen its infrastructure to enable innovation. Vidal noted that the agency is creating new rules that minimize barriers and reduce pitfalls that could hinder faster development and deployment of AI and other emerging technologies.
The agency has also deployed new AI tools that USPTO’s examiners can use to improve the quality of patent and trademark application investigations.
Earlier this year, USPTO formally launched a AI system for comprehensive search for state of the art, resulting in higher quality patents that form the basis for new products, new companies and new industries. For trademarks, USPTO is developing an AI search and comparison tool for attorney research, and for clients, the agency has created an AI-based virtual assistant deployed on its website to help find otherwise changed information quickly and easily.
“In short, we have to do this right, and we have to work with [industry] on that,” said Vidal. “We need to make sure we create laws, policies and practices that benefit the US and the world.”
USPTO built machine learning system that sorts through patent documents, texts, quotes, CPC symbols and other information to better identify certain technologies. The agency developed a system to identify AI in USPTO patent documents. From this system, USPTO released the AI patent dataset in June 2021.
“That dataset is publicly available … that’s kind of the backbone of our efforts here,” explains Nicholas Pairolero, a USPTO economist. “We then released the report ‘Inventing AI’, which traced the massive diffusion of AI across companies across the US geography.”
The agency 2020”invent AIThe report noted that from 2002 to 2018, annual AI patent applications increased by more than 100%, from 30,000 to more than 60,000 per year, explains Mary Critharis, USPTO’s Chief Policy Officer and Director of International Affairs. Over the same period, the share of all patent applications containing AI grew from 9% to almost 16%.
“What we have observed is that AI in invention and innovation is of increasing importance in all areas,” Vidal said. “We also found that the use of AI is widely spread across technologies, inventors, organizations and geography.”
For example, Maine and South Carolina are leaders in applying AI to digital data processing for businesses and enterprises; Oregon in developing AI fitness training programs and equipment; Montana in analyzing the chemical and physical properties of materials; and Wisconsin in the development of AI and medical devices, processes for diagnosis, surgery and identification.
“We need to work together to accelerate our common agenda and accelerate the deployment of these critical technologies in industry and society,” Vidal said. “We play an important role in creating a hopeful future for people who currently believe technology could do more harm than good. AI is an essential bridge to that more optimistic future.”