Patent applications and other technical documents can be lengthy and complex, and it can be time-consuming and challenging for lawyers to review and analyze them thoroughly. ChatGPT can assist with this process by providing a summary of the document, identifying key terms and concepts, and highlighting important information. This can save lawyers time and allow them to focus on more complex legal tasks.
While ChatGPT can be a useful tool in patent legal work, it should not be relied upon as a substitute for legal or technical expertise, so lawyers need to be in charge!
Human in the driving chair
ChatGPT can be a valuable tool for patent lawyers in digesting voluminous technical documents. Patent applications and other technical documents can be lengthy and complex, and it can be time-consuming and challenging for lawyers to review and analyze them thoroughly.
ChatGPT can assist with this process by providing a summary of the document, identifying key terms and concepts, and highlighting important information. This can save lawyers time and allow them to focus on more complex legal tasks.
ChatGPT can also assist with prior art searches by generating search queries and identifying potentially relevant documents based on keywords, patent classifications, and other criteria. This can help lawyers identify existing inventions and other information that may be relevant to the patentability of a new invention.
However, it is important to note that while ChatGPT can be a useful tool in patent legal work, it should not be relied upon as a substitute for legal or technical expertise. Patent law is complex, and it is essential to have a deep understanding of legal and technical requirements to ensure that patent applications are effective and enforceable. Therefore, it is important for lawyers to review and edit any responses generated by ChatGPT to ensure that they are accurate and appropriate for the specific situation.
AI is able to perform tasks that require human input, such as generating initial drafts of claims and providing suggestions for improvements. These types of generative AI tools can help simplify a patent attorney’s workload. However, patent lawyers must be vigilant about the risks associated with using them.
In the context of patent law, one potential risk is that AI tools will create a patentable result in an area that was not foreseen by the inventor. This may cause the AI to be treated as an inventor on the patent application and could lead to a possible invalidation under the doctrine of inventorship misrepresentation.
Another potential risk involves relying on single generative AI models that are trained on the input data of multiple patent applicant clients. The commingling of this information, e.g., invention disclosures, may result in the model generating inappropriate responses.
This type of risk is likely to be mitigated if a client or law firm acquires informed consent before using the generative AI tool. The vendor agreement may include terms of service that limit the use of the generative AI tool, including a “no sharing” or other “confidentiality” clause.
Finally, AI may not be able to recognize biases and stereotypes in the data it receives, which could result in improperly generated claims. The model might also be unable to remember previous conversations or maintain a long-term context, which could affect the quality of its outputs.
Unlike a human, an AI cannot take the time to understand the technical details of an invention or the legal requirements for patent claims. It could, in fact, generate claims that are technically or legally flawed and will not be enforceable under the patent laws of the United States, Europe, or the Asia-Pacific region.
ChatGPT and generative language models are not yet as good as human editors, but they can help streamline a patent attorney’s work by acting as a translator or thesaurus. This can help save time and money by reducing the amount of work that a patent attorney has to do. It can also improve the quality and consistency of content created by a patent attorney, such as website copy and marketing material.
Human perception augmentation with ChatGPT
There is voluminous data available for patent lawyers to make the most of. With AI knowledge, patent lawyers are able to do things like predict the demand for different products in different time frames and manage stocks, build work culture by analyzing employee data and putting them in the right teams and projects based on their competencies, collect feedback about employees, and even help recruit and hire new staff, reducing hiring cycle times by a considerable amount.
The downside is that the large language models used by companies like ChatGPT can generate plausible-sounding but incorrect responses. This is largely due to the fact that the model has not been trained on any particular set of questions, so its training data is a mix of correct information and incorrect information.
This can result in a lot of problems for patent lawyers as they have to work out which answers are true and which are not. The best way to deal with this is to use a drafting service that is specifically for patents (that does not require any attribution credit). This way, they can be sure that the answers are not only coherent but also correct. This will help them prepare a more accurate and compelling patent application, and avoid any risks of being sued for intellectual property.
ChatGPT can be used to augment human perception in a variety of ways. Here are some examples:
- Language translation: ChatGPT can be used to translate text from one language to another. This can help individuals who do not speak a particular language to understand written or spoken communication.
- Summarization: ChatGPT can be used to summarize lengthy text documents or audio recordings, providing a quick overview of key information. This can save individuals time and help them to focus on the most important aspects of the information.
- Question answering: ChatGPT can be used to answer questions on a wide range of topics. This can help individuals to quickly access the information they need and gain a better understanding of a particular subject.
- Information retrieval: ChatGPT can be used to search through large databases of information and retrieve relevant data. This can be particularly useful in fields such as science and medicine, where large volumes of research data are available.
- Personalization: ChatGPT can be trained on individual user preferences, such as search history or reading habits, to provide personalized recommendations and information.
It is important to note that while ChatGPT can be a useful tool in augmenting human perception, it is not a substitute for human judgment and expertise. Individuals should always use their own judgment and knowledge when interpreting information provided by ChatGPT.