Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain: US Patent Office Weighs In - Canadian Intellectual Property Lawyers Oyen Wiggs

There is currently keen interest amongst tech companies, investors, and research institutes in both artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies. The buzz has reached corporations and financial institutions looking to tailor these technologies for their own businesses in order to keep pace in our increasingly digitized economy. This excitement has implications for securing patent protection – Canada and the United States (as well as many other countries) operate on a "first to file" basis. That means you will want to file a patent application before other inventors monopolize protection for the technology in your area, potentially curtailing your competitive business advantage. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued revised guidelines on what constitutes subject-matter that is eligible for patent protection (under 35 U.S.C. § 101), effective January 7, 2019. These guidelines will likely have the largest impact in the area of computer-implemented inventions, including artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies, and may make it easier to patent some of these inventions.