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ARTICLE · 03 OCTOBER 2023

Assessing Patentability In Artificial Intelligence Patent Applications At The EPO

Boult Wade Tennant LLP
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The EPO outlines challenges for patenting AI inventions, emphasizing the need for "technical character," non-obviousness, and detailed descriptions of algorithms and technical effects to ensure patentability.

United KingdomIntellectual Property
Joshua McFarlane
Joshua McFarlane
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As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance and transform various industries, the protection of AI-related inventions through patents becomes increasingly important. Artificial intelligence encompasses a wide range of technologies, including supervised and unsupervised classifiers, natural language processing, computer vision and neural networks.

Each patent office has their own guidelines for the assessment of patentability of patent applications and the approaches taken by the different patent offices worldwide can vary considerably. This is especially true for computer-implemented inventions, which of course includes many inventions relating to AI. Europe is an important market for many industries and a convenient way to obtain patent protection in multiple European countries is by filing an application at the European Patent Office (EPO).

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