Patent Office Using AI to Streamline Operations, Boost Quality

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is developing its own artificial intelligence tools to help examiners analyze patent and trademark applications.

The move is part of agency director Andrei Iancu’s push to ensure the office is issuing patents and trademarks that can stand up to legal scrutiny. Stronger patents and trademarks give more certainty to inventors and investors alike, Iancu has said.

The agency received 643,349 patent applications and 638,847 trademark applications in fiscal year 2018, according to its recent annual report. It’s betting its homegrown AI technology, including smarter search engine algorithms used in patent examination, and slicker image-based ...