AI: Is Patenting Really The Right Move? - Factor I

This article forms one part of a broader decision framework for evaluating whether patent or trade secret protection is appropriate for AI innovation.

The framework is designed to help decision-makers (e.g., innovators, in house, CTOs) align patent and IP strategy with underlying business realities and moving beyond purely "legal" considerations.

Within that framework, this article addresses a first decision factor: what exactly is the AI innovation, or more specifically, what incremental advance over existing technology is proposed?

Innovation in applied AI often sits somewhere along the spectrum between the big picture level (or application-level innovation) and the small picture level (or implementation-level innovation). As discussed below, this distinction informs much of the remaining framework.