From Patent Disclosure To AI Training: Legal Challenges And Institutional Responses

This article was first published on IAM.

Patent specifications and drawings are important carriers of technical information. Once they are published by the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), they become publicly available knowledge resources. With the rapid development of generative artificial intelligence, a key question has emerged: May published patent specifications and drawings be used as training data for AI models? In China, what legal and compliance risks would such use entail?

The copyright nature of patent specifications and drawings and the requirements for publication

According to the Copyright Law, a work must possess originality and be expressed in a tangible form. Although the drafting of patent specifications and drawings is subject to formal requirements under the Patent Law and they must be examined by the patent administrative authority and published by way of announcement, in essence they are not administrative documents but technical