Dr. Stephen Thaler has done something that few have done in decades – made Philosophy professors suddenly relevant. He filed patent applications around the world that named an artificial-intelligence (AI) device as the inventor. The AI device is named “DABUS,” or Device for Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience. Courts in the EU, US and UK have initially held that only humans can be inventors on patents, but South Africa and Australia have disagreed. The question of whether an AI device should be permitted to be a named inventor on a patent opens up a host of rich questions – including both policy and philosophical ones. What are some of the awkward implications of AI inventorship?
Read MoreOn April 28, Google published a policy statement on the need for specific patent reforms. The statement was published by Google’s General Counsel, Halimah DeLaine Prado, and titled, Reforming the patent system to support American innovation. The statement is a notable read given that it issued from one of the largest Big Tech companies. The statement identifies four concrete areas where patent reform is purportedly required. Behind its prescriptions lingers its agenda—namely, that patents should have no value at all.
Read MoreA recent post on this blog by Gaston Kroub discussed the ongoing patent war between Sonos and Google. The war started when Sonos accused Google of stealing its technology and infringing its patents. Since then, the war has broadened to multiple fronts. In one interesting twist, Google commenced its suit against Sonos asserting its own patents. Gaston’s commentary provides some useful insights for why Google would do this from strategic perspective. But in this post, we raise another question: is Google a patent troll?
Read MoreThis is the year of the unicorns. Or maybe just the year of unicorns going public. Firms including Lyft, Uber, AirBnB, WeWork and Pinterest either have, will or are contemplating going public. Last week, The Economist published an interesting briefing on unicorns. The primary thesis is that they are overvalued. At heart, their users are not faithful, and barriers to entry won’t stop competitors from encroaching on their base. Yet, for all the reasons unicorns try to downplay this concern, there’s no mention of patents and IP as a line of defense. Why not?
Read MoreThis week’s edition of The Economist addresses an interesting spin on the prospects of budding Silicon Valley startups living under the shadow of Big Tech. The fantasy of getting bought is being supplanted by the reality of getting taken out. The Economist argues that startups now live within a kill zone maintained by Big Tech—either sell out on our terms, or we’ll co-opt your technology and launch our own product. While antitrust may be one solution to give more leverage to innovators, what about patents?
Read MoreIP decisions don't get bigger than the one handed down by the Federal Circuit yesterday in the long-running dispute between Oracle and Google over Google's use of Java code in developing Android. The case will continue -- with a damages trial at a time TBD, once the appeals of this appeals court decision are exhausted -- and will continue garnering significant interest from IP lawyers, software companies, and investors. Nothing like the prospect of a multi-billion dollar damages award to attract eyeballs. Now that Google's key defense -- fair use -- has been rejected by the CAFC, it is a good time to consider 3 immediate takeaways from this important decision.
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