On the other, the advent of deep learning has significant implications for the patent
system. Though there has so far been relatively little patenting of deep learning innovations,
historical episodes such as the discovery and attempted wholesale patenting of express sequence
tags and other kinds of genetic data suggests that breakthroughs in research tools—often
combined with a lack of capacity at patent offices and conflicting court decisions—can result in
long periods of uncertainty that has hampered the issuing of new patents, and this in turn has led
to lower research productivity and less competition. Deep learning also presents difficult
questions of legal doctrine for patent systems that have been built around the idea of creative
authors and inventors. For example, “inventorship” has a specific meaning in patent law, with
very important implications for ownership and control of the claimed invention.
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