The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) said it wants to significantly scale up its use of artificial intelligence in the coming months to streamline support for its patent examination process and reduce wait times on patents and trademarks.
“The USPTO is seeking American industry partners motivated to help improve the patent and trademark examination processes and fuel a national transformation of AI infrastructure with the goal of reducing application backlogs and protecting applicant data from domestic and foreign IP theft,” said USPTO in a posting to SAM.gov on June 4.
Responses to the request for information are due by June 10.
The RFI builds upon the agency’s AI plan that it released in January, saying it planned to adopt AI to advance the development of IP policies; build best-in-class AI capabilities; promote the responsible use of AI; develop AI expertise within USPTO; and collaborate with other U.S. government and international entities on shared AI priorities.
“The USPTO’s goal is to promote innovation and opportunities,” USPTO said in its strategy document. “The success of AI will be determined by its ability to create new jobs, increase economic growth, and enable communities throughout the nation to thrive. Unleashing this technology’s full potential depends on ensuring everyone in the United States has the ability and opportunity to engage with AI innovation.”
Solutions USPTO said it wants would feature process automation, new code, or workflow improvements.
While vendors must supply secure cloud infrastructure and relinquish rights to any developed tech, the agency is offering exposure and the chance to help fill a key Federal tech gap in lieu of traditional payment.
“The Agency seeks to broaden its understanding of the commercial marketplace in order to increase the efficiency of the patent examination process by the use of additional low or no cost AI-based tools that can assist in the completion of specific examination-related tasks, thereby ensuring consistency of the work product,” reads the RFI.