AI patent litigation inevitable – collapsing uniqueness
Gang Chen, partner at Crowell, Jan 10, 2024 Patents: A Proposed Legislative Fix for Patent Eligibility Ambiguity Could Impact Litigation Strategy https://www.crowell.com/en/insights/publications/a-proposed-legislative-fix-for-patent-eligibility-ambiguity-could-impact-litigation-strategy
Regardless of whether Congress takes up the issue of patent eligibility in 2024, the courts will likely see a dramatic increase in artificial intelligence-related patent litigation in the coming year, says Crowell & Moring partner Gang Chen. A surge in AI patent litigation is the logical outcome of the explosion in the number of AI patent applications filed over the past two decades. In 2020, the USPTO reported it received 80,000 utility patent applications involving AI—over 150 percent higher than in 2002. In the fall of 2023, the USPTO said that AI appeared in more than 18 percent of all utility patent applications it received. In addition, many of those AI inventions patented in the past two decades have been brought to the commercial market over the past couple of years, making infringement claims increasingly likely. They also are getting more valuable, with the size of the global AI market forecasted to increase seven-fold, from nearly $60 billion in 2021 to more than $420 billion in 2030. “So much has been invested and so much progress made, it’s inevitable that disputes will arise,” says Chen.