In their new paper published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, C4IP Co-Chairs and former USPTO Directors Andrei Iancu and David Kappos emphasize that strong intellectual property (IP) protections are essential for fostering innovation in the field of artificial intelligence (AI).
They argue that AI’s advancement depends on human ingenuity and that, without robust patent protections for AI-driven innovations, we risk stifling the very creativity necessary to propel this transformative technology forward.
Additionally, they highlight how clear and enforceable guidelines and IP protections can benefit content creators by reducing the harms of AI on the artistic community — without hindering AI’s continued progress. One example is the No Fakes Act, a piece of legislation that aims to prevent deepfakes.
Iancu and Kappos also express concern about the USPTO’s overly restrictive guidance on AI-related inventions, particularly its stance that AI-generated outputs are comparable to human abstract thought processes, which are typically not patent-eligible.
“Our laws should treat AI like any other tool: defaulting to patent eligibility until and unless compelling evidence becomes available to dictate some other policy direction,” explain Iancu and Kappos. “Of course, strengthening IP protections for both data inputs and human-created enhancements won’t just increase the social and economic utility of AI. A more robust and reliable system of IP rights will also directly benefit content creators.”
Read the full paper here:
https://ssir.org/articles/entry/ai-creativity-copyrights-patents#