The World has changed; we can be certain that in an age where generative AI has become readily available to scientists, engineers and creatives, the prospects for potential leaps in innovation seem boundless. Whilst this might appear dispiriting to budding innovators worried about how a mere human can compete with an all-knowing LLM, from the perspective of patent law has the threshold for what qualifies as ‘inventive’ really changed?
The AI of skill in the art
Novelty is the first hurdle of patentability for an invention and generally requires a fairly objective assessment: either the invention is new, or it isn’t. The second hurdle set by most patent legal systems is more subjective and relies on the assumption that a patent claim demonstrates an inventive step with reference to whether a person of skill in the relevant field of art would have deemed the claimed invention obvious. The determination of novelty and obviousness is made at the appropriate priority date for the claimed
