Sustainable patent governance of artificial intelligence: recalibrating the European Patent System to foster innovation (SDG 9)

Guido Noto La Diega, Gabriele Cifrodelli and Artha Dermawan

Chapter 13 in The Elgar Companion to Intellectual Property and the Sustainable Development Goals, 2024, pp 299-322 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter reflects on what a sustainable patent governance looks like in the age of the rise of inventive AI. To do so, we critically evaluate the relationship between artificial intelligence, European patent law, and sustainability, with a focus on the Sustainable Development Goal 9, i.e. to build resilient infrastructure, to promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation, and to foster innovation. In particular, we consider SDG Targets 9.1, 9.2 and 9.5 for their emphasis on equitable access to innovation, inclusive industrialisation, and the imperative to consider the national circumstances of developing countries. While the contribution of patent law to SDG 9 may prima facie appear as straightforward - both promote innovation - we problematise this relationship by shedding light on the unsustainability of patents. In Section 1, we analyse patent data related to climate change mitigation technologies to discover that, under the European Patent Convention, there has been a significant growth in AI-related patenting, but that developing countries are being left behind. In Section 2, to overcome the decreased access to innovation stemming from an inventive step requirement that does not match the reality of AI-powered ingenuity, we focus on AI datasets and suggest a recalibration that revolves around the concept of Therapeutics Data Commons. In Section 3, we suggest a more nuanced understanding of AI inventorship to include Global South perspectives before concluding.

Keywords: Development Studies; Law - Academic; Sustainable Development Goals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781803925233.00020 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:21663_13

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Darrel McCalla ().