Talk at the 5th International Online ConferencePROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS(Moscow)

1. Strategies to protect innovation in
artificial intelligence and machine
learning
Bastian Best
European Patent Attorney, Patentanwalt
2 October 2020
5th International Online Conference
PROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
Moscow

2. www.europeansoftwarepatents.com /bastianbestSource: WIPO (2019). WIPO Technology Trends 2019: Artificial Intelligence. Geneva: World Intellectual Property Organization
Exponential growth of AI patents

3. Typical AI applications
www.europeansoftwarepatents.com /bastianbest
• Image processing
Face recognition, medical analysis
• Speech / language processing
Voice assistants, machine translation, chat bots
• Machine control
Self-driving cars, drones, robotics
• Simulation and design
Pharmaceutical, components, documents

4. What to protect?
TRAINING
ALGORITHM
ML MODEL
INPUT OUTPUT
TRAINING
DATA
WEIGHTS
www.europeansoftwarepatents.com /bastianbest

5. How to protect AI/ML assets?
TRADE SECRETS?
www.europeansoftwarepatents.com /bastianbestPhoto by Kristina Flour on Unsplash

6. How to protect AI/ML assets?
COPYRIGHT?
www.europeansoftwarepatents.com /bastianbestPhoto by S O C I A L . C U T on Unsplash

7. How to protect AI/ML assets?
PATENTS?
www.europeansoftwarepatents.com /bastianbestPhoto by Garett Mizunaka on Unsplash

8. Patenting AI/ML assets?
TRAINING
ALGORITHM
ML MODEL
INPUT OUTPUT
TRAINING
DATA
WEIGHTS
www.europeansoftwarepatents.com /bastianbest

9. INVENTION
PRIOR ART
TECHNICAL
NON-TECHNICAL
OBVIOUS?
The EPO’s COMVIK approach
www.europeansoftwarepatents.com /bastianbest

10. Patenting the ML model?
TRAINING
ALGORITHM
ML MODEL
INPUT OUTPUT
TRAINING
DATA
WEIGHTS
www.europeansoftwarepatents.com /bastianbest

11. EPO Guidelines for Examination, G-II-3.3.1
Patenting the ML model?
www.europeansoftwarepatents.com /bastianbest

12. Patenting the technical application/implementation?
TRAINING
ALGORITHM
ML MODEL
INPUT OUTPUT
TRAINING
DATA
WEIGHTS
www.europeansoftwarepatents.com /bastianbest

13. Image classification:
technical or not?
EPO Guidelines for Examination, G-II-3.3.1
www.europeansoftwarepatents.com /bastianbest

14. Spam classification:
technical or not?
A method of classifying emails
depending on their content performed
by a computer program executing on
a computer, comprising:
- applying a probabilistic classifier
to calculate a probability that the
email is spam;
- wherein the classifier has been
trained on past classifications of
email content.
Source: Microsoft Corp. WO 99/67731
www.europeansoftwarepatents.com /bastianbest

15. Spam classification:
technical or not?
T 0022/12 (Spam classification/MICROSOFT)
www.europeansoftwarepatents.com /bastianbest

16. Spam classification:
technical or not?
A method of classifying emails
depending on their content performed
by a computer program executing on
a computer, comprising:
- applying a probabilistic classifier
to calculate a probability that the
email is spam;
- wherein the classifier has been
trained on past classifications of
email content.
Source: Microsoft Corp. WO 99/67731
No technical contribution
www.europeansoftwarepatents.com /bastianbest

17. www.europeansoftwarepatents.com
Concise and actionable summaries of
virtually all EPO Board of Appeal
decisions that concern European
software patents.

18. Patenting the training algorithm?
TRAINING
ALGORITHM
ML MODEL
INPUT OUTPUT
TRAINING
DATA
WEIGHTS
www.europeansoftwarepatents.com /bastianbest

19. EPO Guidelines for Examination, G-II-3.3.1
Patenting the training algorithm?
www.europeansoftwarepatents.com /bastianbest

20. Patenting the training data?
TRAINING
ALGORITHM
ML MODEL
INPUT OUTPUT
TRAINING
DATA
WEIGHTS
www.europeansoftwarepatents.com /bastianbest

21. Patenting the weights (=trained model)?
TRAINING
ALGORITHM
ML MODEL
INPUT OUTPUT
TRAINING
DATA
WEIGHTS
www.europeansoftwarepatents.com /bastianbest

22. Patenting the weights (=trained model)?
TRAINING
ALGORITHM
ML MODEL
INPUT OUTPUT
TRAINING
DATA
WEIGHTS
www.europeansoftwarepatents.com /bastianbest

23. Patenting the output?
TRAINING
ALGORITHM
ML MODEL
INPUT OUTPUT
TRAINING
DATA
WEIGHTS
www.europeansoftwarepatents.com /bastianbest

24. Patenting the output?
TRAINING
ALGORITHM
ML MODEL
INPUT OUTPUT
TRAINING
DATA
WEIGHTS
www.europeansoftwarepatents.com /bastianbest

25. BARDEHLE.COM
BARDEHLE PAGENBERG
Partnerschaft mbB
Prinzregentenplatz 7
81675 München
"IP Law Firm of the Year" and "Law Firm of the Year for Trademarks &
Unfair Competition" 2018 – awarded by JUVE
"Germany Trade Mark Firm of the Year" 2018 – honored by Managing IP
"TOP-KANZLEI Patentrecht 2017" – awarded by WirtschaftsWoche
"Law Firm of the Year" 2016 for Intellectual Property Law – named by
Best Lawyers® and Handelsblatt
Bastian Best
bastian.best@bardehle.de
/bastianbest