Protection Rights Alliance: The five largest patent offices are pushing AI use

The dynamic development in the field of Artificial Intelligence is also affecting the institutional cornerstones of global innovation protection. This was recently evident at the annual meeting of the world's five largest patent offices (IP5 Group) in Tokyo. The European Patent Office (EPO) met with its partner authorities from the USA, China, Japan, and South Korea during the week to decide on a technological reorientation. The focus of the conference was the intention to deepen international cooperation and integrate AI more strongly into its own examination and service processes.

Together, the participating authorities handle around 85 percent of all global patent applications. The initiative is therefore of corresponding importance for the future of global intangible property rights in the commercial sector.

The heads of the EPO, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), the Japan Patent Office (JPO), and the South Korean Ministry of Intellectual Property (MOIP) demonstrated unity on site. Under the chairmanship of JPO Commissioner Yasuyuki Kasai, they stressed that AI is no longer a theoretical scenario, but an operational tool. It is intended to help establish a new foundation for the quality and efficiency of patent examination worldwide.

The authorities' heads agreed to review the roadmap critically for new technologies and AI, decided in 2021, for the first time comprehensively. The goal is to identify further strategic areas of cooperation and to ensure that the regulatory and operational frameworks keep pace with technical development.

Authorities in an AI Frenzy, Machines Are Not Inventors

In this context, an almost paradoxical contradiction emerges in international patent policy: while the authorities are rapidly upgrading their own systems for the algorithmic future, AI remains largely legally excluded on the applicant side. In global legal practice – led by landmark decisions of the EPO and other IP5 offices – the dogma that an AI itself cannot be named as the inventor in a patent application continues to apply. Legal systems strictly require a natural person as the creative author.

Developers thus face the dilemma that highly developed, AI-generated innovations are examined with the help of state-of-the-art authority algorithms. However, in their development process, they are legally treated like traditional human inventions.

EPO President António Campinos emphasized a responsible approach to the new tools for the offices in Tokyo. While AI offers opportunities to optimize services for developers and companies and to strengthen innovation capacity, this must always be done transparently and under supervision. Humans remain the final control instance in the examination process. However, algorithms should support the increasingly complex preparatory work and research.

Through the coordinated exchange of best practices within the IP5 alliance, the offices aim to prevent a fragmentation of systems. Instead, they strive for a harmonization of AI-supported patent practice.

Asian Application Boom Continues

The urgency of this approach is also reflected in the close dialogue with industry. The heads of the offices met with leading industry associations from the respective regions on the day before the main meeting. According to the EPO, the economy supports the patent offices' initiative. The discussions accordingly focused on the operational use of AI tools. For the tech industry, reliable and accelerated examination is crucial, as delays in the patent system could lead to competitive disadvantages in fast-moving markets.

In discussions between the EPO and the JPO, alongside the harmonization of examination practice, the growing interest of Japanese inventors in the new European Unitary Patent was a focus. Discussions with South Korean MOIP Minister Yong Sun Kim primarily revolved around the ongoing boom of Asian high-tech applications in Europe. The EPO presented him with its new AI-assisted tools to increase system compatibility.

The conference also marked the twentieth anniversary of the so-called Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH). This cooperation network enables accelerated patent examination based on already existing positive examination results from a partner office. According to the EPO, this division of labor makes a significant contribution to relieving the burden on authorities and to faster legal certainty for developers. The partners reaffirmed their intention to consistently further develop the PPH and to modernize it technologically so that automated data flows and algorithmic pre-examinations can interlock in the future.

(nie)