How to Protect IPR of AI Technology?
The most common means of protecting intellectual property in artificial intelligence (AI) technology are patents and trade secrets. But patents and trade secrets are two fundamentally different tools for protecting intellectual property. Patents focus on promoting public disclosure, while trade secrets focus on protecting independent innovation.
In the case of popular AI implementations such as artificial neural networks, patents can be used to protect node architectures, network topologies, feature extraction and related signal processing in networks, while trade secret protection can be used to protect many themes with patent protection qualifications. However, related technologies must be kept confidential. Trade secret protection may be an ideal choice for rules, training methods, databases, and business methods for artificial intelligence system development.
If it is easy to reverse-engineer products and discover potential innovations, then it is not suitable to use trade secret protection. If competitors can publicly acquire products that incorporate AI intellectual property rights, reverse-engineer them, understand the working principle of the invention, then the invention is no longer a trade secret.
Another factor to consider when choosing trade secret protection or patent protection is the durability of the commercial advantage brought about by the invention. A patent may take several years to be released. As mentioned above, the invention patent will expire after 20 years, so the invention patent provides a protection period of up to 20 years. If the period of commercial advantage brought by the invention is too short (less than the time required to obtain a patent) or very long, for example, a duration longer than the patent protection period, then it might be more suitable for the company to protect its AI technology as trade secret.
In addition, the commercial value of the invention must be considered. If the invention is a minor improvement to the prior art and has limited commercial value, or its value may even be lower than the cost of obtaining the patent, then the invention is more suitable for trade secret protection. Conversely, it may be more suitable for patent protection.
Finally, patents and trade secrets are licensable assets if the company plans to monetize the intellectual property of its AI technology, but depending on the disclosure and confidentiality discussed above, one of the forms of protection may need to be prioritized.
September 11, 2019
Source: China Intellectual Property Right Net
Photo from: 699pic.com
