Patent play a critical role in protecting innovations and providing incentives to the investors. And that is the main force driving PatSeer, an AI-driven platform in the world of patents.
Manish Sinha is the CTO and founder of PatSeer, and has been with company from the start. And he is proud to share that PatSeer is an AI driven platform for patent research and intelligence.
As per Sinha, the platform offers its services to “corporates that are into innovation, and for startups, or universities, and even people who provide services to these, which are basically legal service providers or law firms.”
In an insightful discussion with CIO&Leader, Manish Sinha explored the transformative role of AI in the patent industry, impact of the 2024 patent amendments rules, and the future landscape of patent filing and management.
Role of Patents in Intellectual Property
Patents play a critical role in protecting innovations and providing incentives to inventors. The new patent amendment rules introduced in 2024 aim to fast-track the filing process and reduce the pendency of patent applications.
Sinha explains, “As we move from a traditional service economy to an innovation-driven economy, it is natural to have a patent system that works side by side with that.”
“As we move from a traditional service economy to an innovation-driven economy, it is bound to, it is natural to have a patent system that works side by side with that, because you cannot have innovation without providing incentives to the innovators at the right time,” he adds.
New Patent Amendment Rules 2024
The 2024 amendments introduced several capabilities for companies and inventors, such as the ability to request early examination of patents.
“Earlier it was possible to do that in four years, but now it’s been reduced from four years to 31 months,” Sinha notes. “It is now possible to also request for an early examination much before. Earlier it was possible to do that in four years, but now it’s been reduced from four years to 31 months.”
There are other improvements as well, including smoother form filings and discounts for pre-paying maintenance fees. Plus the applicants don’t have to disclose the revenue gained from inventions on annual base. Now it has been reduced to once in three years.
Trends and Predictions in Patent Filing and Management
The rules are getting upgraded with each and every case. But there still must be something which needs correction and growth. So how does Sinha foresee the patent filing and management landscape in India?
“We will definitely see with the amendments, aiding a much more smoother workflow,” he explains. He says the time it takes for a patent from filing to grant and overall patent tendency at the patent office is going to reduce.
How does it affect the patent filing? With the ease of various procedures and removal of any roadblock in the number of forms filed, Sinha definitely sees the increase in patent filing.
But there is another reason for that: Innovation-driven companies. According to Sinha, they are realizing that in order to become more competitive they have to be more innovative and protect the innovation which leads to increase in patent filing.
With the new amendments, there is also an expected reduction in the time it takes for a patent to be granted, leading to a decrease in overall patent pendency. Sinha highlights, “Year on year, the number of applications are growing between 25 to 30%.” Additionally, the number of patents filed by universities, including private institutions, has seen a surprising increase.
Impact of AI on Patent Management
1. AI in patent searching: AI-based searching improves the efficiency and accuracy of patent searches by understanding the context and meaning of search queries.
2. GenAI for drafting and summarization: Generative AI assists in drafting patents and preparing responses, significantly reducing the time required to produce high-quality drafts.
3. Classification and Analysis: AI helps classify patent data according to organizational taxonomy, providing better insights into competitive positioning.
Legal and Operational Considerations
Organizations using AI for patent management must be aware of several legal and operational considerations:
1. Confidentiality and Data Usage: The use of AI models raises concerns about confidentiality and whether data used for training models is being adequately protected.
2. Copyright and Licensing Issues: The potential inclusion of copyrighted material in AI training data could lead to legal challenges.
3. Operational Risks: Understanding the licenses and risks associated with AI models is crucial for organizations to ensure compliance and mitigate potential legal issues.
Cybersecurity in the Age of AI
PatSeer is a web-based application, Singh emphasis. “We fall in the class of B2B SaaS applications that are out there, because people take a login ID, they log into our system and then they do their research and then they extract all sorts of insights and download them or share them and all of that.”
PatSeer places a strong emphasis on cybersecurity, conforming to standards such as SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 2022. Sinha states, “We leverage a host of services provided by the cloud computing platform to prevent typical types of cyber security attacks.”
The standards encompass rigorous audits that scrutinize the procedures, not just at the data center level but also within offices and on the laptops used by team members.
“We also leverage a lot of cloud security capabilities to prevent the typical type of cyber security attacks, whether it is denial of service attack or so,” he adds, emphasizing that despite all the measures he acknowledges the persistent reality of cyberattacks.
“So we just reduce the risk of such a thing (targeted cyberattacks). But have we completely eliminated it? I don’t think any organization can say a yes to that.”
Future Challenges and Prospects in Patents
Looking ahead, AI is expected to improve in understanding complex patents, especially in fields like biochemistry. Sinha also envisions AI becoming an internal inventor in companies, proposing innovative solutions by combining information from various patents.
“AI is good at understanding patents, so AI is good at learning innovations. If it is good at learning innovations, then can it give predictions towards ideas to solve a problem?” It’s a possibility, and Sinha agrees. AI as inventor is a concept that is already being talked about in international courts.
“USPTO recently also said that AI-based inventions are allowed as long as the majority work is done by humans.”
In conclusion
The integration of AI into patent management is revolutionizing the industry, making processes faster and more efficient while also presenting new challenges. As AI continues to evolve, its role in innovation and patent management will only become more significant, driving growth and transformation across sectors.
