3 ms·

More substantively: I’m planning on using AI (grounded symbolic RAG-esque ones) and existing patent examples & instructions to help me write a patent for an AI

by bbor 3y ago

More substantively: I’m planning on using AI (grounded symbolic RAG-esque ones) and existing patent examples & instructions to help me write a patent for an AI system I’ve designed, passing it off to (non-specialized) attorney friends and family only for final glances. Does a kind hacker need denizen want to make an example of me and explain why I shouldn’t try that? The actual filing fees for “microenterprises” is low, and it doesn’t say you need to be a lawyer… plus cmon, there’s no way that “legal code” mentioned here is some impenetrable jargon. In more provocative terms: once we have agential assistants with grounded legal knowledge, i think the patent lawyer industry will get its lunch eaten by AI-assisted laymen

D13Fd 3y ago
I see a few issues: (1) One of the biggest values the attorneys add is in prosecution. Absent attorney help, there is a big risk that you'll do things during prosecution that may impact the effectiveness of the patent during any litigation. (2) Training an AI on existing patents is nice, but what you really need to do is train it on good existing patents. And you are probably not in a position to tell which ones are good. (3) Asking attorney friends and family for "final glances" is a pretty big ask. Ethically it's questionable for them to offer advice in an area they are unfamiliar with, and even more so to offer advice based on a quick glance. The "legal code" the claims are written is not impenetrable jargon at all. But, absent experience in litigation, it's hard to understand how the Court is going to construe claim language in a claim.
- bbor 3y ago
  Thank you for the clear response - was hoping to elicit such an expert :). That all makes sense. I’m most interested in #3, as I obviously wouldn’t want to make them liable or connected to the patent in any meaningful way… will have to look into that. The hope is/was that, since this is a cheap patent taken out by a non-profit micro enterprise, the stakes are low; if it eventually gets infringed it wouldn’t be the end of the world. So in that context, I wasn’t expecting any serious liability passing to them. Also if anyone has resources for #2 I’d love to hear them :). I guess this is a huge field on its own now (I think IBM invested w/ Watson in legal research?), but I’m definitely going to try to find public datasets anyway. Or blogs, guidebooks, textbooks, etc… …something tells me the question “which patents are good” might be take a while to answer comprehensively! Better start soon, I guess.
theGnuMe 3y ago
Probably not, you can file the patent but then you need to prosecute it if someone infringes on it. AI will be a tool for the field to help productivity whose output will still require expert review.

by bbor 3y ago

D13Fd 3y ago

I see a few issues: (1) One of the biggest values the attorneys add is in prosecution. Absent attorney help, there is a big risk that you'll do things during prosecution that may impact the effectiveness of the patent during any litigation. (2) Training an AI on existing patents is nice, but what you really need to do is train it on good existing patents. And you are probably not in a position to tell which ones are good. (3) Asking attorney friends and family for "final glances" is a pretty big ask. Ethically it's questionable for them to offer advice in an area they are unfamiliar with, and even more so to offer advice based on a quick glance. The "legal code" the claims are written is not impenetrable jargon at all. But, absent experience in litigation, it's hard to understand how the Court is going to construe claim language in a claim.

bbor 3y ago
Thank you for the clear response - was hoping to elicit such an expert :). That all makes sense. I’m most interested in #3, as I obviously wouldn’t want to make them liable or connected to the patent in any meaningful way… will have to look into that. The hope is/was that, since this is a cheap patent taken out by a non-profit micro enterprise, the stakes are low; if it eventually gets infringed it wouldn’t be the end of the world. So in that context, I wasn’t expecting any serious liability passing to them. Also if anyone has resources for #2 I’d love to hear them :). I guess this is a huge field on its own now (I think IBM invested w/ Watson in legal research?), but I’m definitely going to try to find public datasets anyway. Or blogs, guidebooks, textbooks, etc… …something tells me the question “which patents are good” might be take a while to answer comprehensively! Better start soon, I guess.

theGnuMe 3y ago

Probably not, you can file the patent but then you need to prosecute it if someone infringes on it. AI will be a tool for the field to help productivity whose output will still require expert review.