On April 9, 2025, a professional exchange event themed Patent Protection in the AI Era was grandly held in Beijing, hosted by Intellectual Property Press Co., Ltd., with the core theme of Patent Protection and Industrial Development in the AI Era.
Centering on the intersection of intellectual property and artificial intelligence, the event built a high-end communication platform for experts, scholars, IP managers, legal practitioners and all stakeholders in the AI industry. Participants conducted in-depth discussions on hot issues including eligibility disputes over AI-generated inventions, technical difficulties in the examination of algorithm patents, patent portfolio strategies and risk prevention mechanisms for the AI industry, emerging legal dilemmas and future industry trends. The forum also focused on analyzing opportunities and challenges of AI-related patents in industrial layout, licensing strategies and market competition landscape. By sorting out cutting-edge industry updates, policy orientations and trends of legal services, the event helped enterprises accurately grasp industrial development trajectories, effectively avert legal risks and consolidate their competitive strengths across the global market.
Invited to the event, Liu Shen Partner WANG Juan delivered a keynote speech entitled Global Trends and Legal Challenges in the Protection of Artificial Intelligence Patents, offering in-depth insights into the latest progress of global AI technological advancement and relevant patent protection practices. Starting from the overall landscape of global AI development, Ms. Wang illustrated the current status of AI technology evolution and patent protection from multiple dimensions, including total global investment scale in the AI sector, launch status of mainstream AI models, volume of AI-related patent applications and filings concerning generative AI technologies. In terms of practical challenges in AI patent examination, she pointed out that the wide application of AI generation technologies may lead to interactions between AI-aided inventors and AI-empowered examiners in future patent prosecution practices, which will pose new challenges to the non-obviousness standard. For patent applications involving AI-assisted inventions, it is urgent to clarify the respective contributions made by natural person inventors and AI tools, so as to accurately identify who has made substantive and inventive contributions to the patented technical solutions in subsequent legal proceedings. In view of the difficulties in evidence collection involving AI patents, Ms. Wang cited China’s first AI patent infringement case (Civil Final Judgment No. 1432, IP Division of the Supreme People’s Court, 2023). She emphasized the urgency of aligning legal evidence-taking rules with the black-box nature of AI technologies, and put forward forward-looking strategic suggestions for innovators to establish solid patent barriers amid global market competition.
Other distinguished speakers included Professor XU Chunming from Shanghai International College of Intellectual Property, Tongji University; BI Chunli, Deputy Director of the IP and Innovation Development Center at China Academy of Information and Communications Technology; ZHOU Yong, Director of the Patent Cooperation Department of CATL; and CUI Lingling, General Manager of the Patent Affairs Department of Baidu Group.
Integrated with solid data analysis and rich practical experience, the sharing fully demonstrated the firm’s profound professional prowess at the intersection of artificial intelligence and intellectual property law, winning high recognition from all attending experts. Going forward, Liu Shen & Associates will continue to keep track of frontier legal issues arising from technological innovation, and provide solid legal safeguards for all innovation-oriented entities.
