The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has awarded a $75 million contract to Accenture Federal Services (AFS) to scale the use of artificial intelligence and modernize the patent examination process.
The Aug. 28 announcement said that the company – which provides consulting and technology services for the government – will provide AI services to help the USPTO review the “hundreds of thousands” of patent applications it receives annually.
An important part of the patent review process is a “comprehensive prior art search” – searching through existing patents, publications, and databases to ensure an invention is truly new – which has created challenges as prior art has grown at an “exponential” rate, according to the release.
The AI tools will help solve this problem and “enhance the quality and efficiency of patent examination” AFS said.
“The [USPTO] is a 200-year-old Federal agency at the cutting-edge of technology and invention that serves a critical mission in protecting the rights of U.S. inventors and business owners,” Rasha Nahas, a managing director at AFS and Department of Commerce client account lead, said in a statement.
“Accenture Federal Services’ collaborative approach with the USPTO over the past four years has successfully supported new ways of working and helped the agency develop and deploy new AI capabilities in patent examination that are purpose-built for mission success and to deliver business value,” she continued.
The contract is set for five years and will include strengthening the IP system, improving operations, and building a “roadmap for future modernization by scaling” into an AI-based production environment.
AFS has received recent multi-million-dollar contracts with other Federal agencies for modernization efforts, including working with the Social Security Administration to streamline and modernize the annual processing of forms, and with the Department of Interior to support the Bureau of Land Management’s mission services platform.
