The Generative AI Patent Wave is Coming: WIPO 2024 Report Highlights
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recently released the 2024 Patent Landscape Report, focusing exclusively on generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) patents¹. We summarize only the key findings and insights of this report to help show a general trend is occurring throughout the world concerning applying for protection on GenAI.
GenAI is a subfield of artificial intelligence which involves deep learning models which are trained on data from many different areas, without any limitations in terms of task. Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and image generators like DALL-E are examples of GenAI². Since this is a global report, WIPO refers to all patents for a single invention, across multiple countries, as a patent family³.
GenAI Patents: Small but Mighty Portion of All AI Patents
While GenAI only holds 6% of the total AI patent family publications, WIPO focused their attention here because an explosion of GenAI patents is likely imminent.
The introduction of transformer models in 2017 and the release of ChatGPT in November 2022 initiated a wave of scientific publications and recently issued patents on GenAI. It can be expected GenAI patents will match the accelerated growth of scientific publications in 2024 and 2025 due to the 18-month lag between patent filing and publication. “Since the introduction of the transformer in 2017, the deep neural network architecture behind the Large Language Models that has been synonymous with GenAI, the number of GenAI patents has increased by over 800%[4].” This dramatic increase in GenAI patents and scientific publications correlates to the extraordinary uptick in interest and investment in this technology.
GenAI Modes Patent Growth
The image/video mode of GenAI holds the most patent families. Although the molecules/genes/proteins mode seems to pale in comparison, this category has grown the most over the last decade, with an annual growth rate of about 45%.
We are only seeing the beginning of the GenAI patent wave
Measuring real time patent trends is challenging because patents are only published 18 months after their filing in most jurisdictions. Though most current GenAI patent applications have likely not yet been published, their growth is already becoming visible and measurable. The tidal wave of GenAI patents is coming soon and we can only approximate its magnitude with the dramatic growth in scientific publications and patent publications.
[1] World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) 2024 Report on Generative Artificial Intelligence, Patent Landscape Report. Geneva:WIPO://doi.org/10.34667/tind.49740.
[2] Refer to this blog post for greater detail on the Gen AI’s position in the AI/ML/DL/GenAI environment.
[3] “A patent family is a collection of patent applications covering the same or similar technical content (i.e. the same invention). We conduct our analysis using patent families to count inventions and not several patents corresponding to the same subject matter and filed in different jurisdictions.” WIPO 2024 Report on GenAI at pg. 33.
[4] WIPO 2024 Report on GenAI at pg. 7.
