Artificial Intelligence In Search of Protection — Part III

Reasons behind not looking for patent protection

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This is a series of four articles on AI and IP protection:

Part I — Why patenting an AI innovation is different

Part II — The advantages of patenting AI products

Part III — Reasons behind not looking for patent protection

Part IV — AI Patents Landscape

Of course is not all peaches and dandelions here. If from one hand patents increase valuation and attract investors’ attention, some studies seem to suggest otherwise (Smith and Cordina, 2014). Looking at the patents portfolio is a shortcut for less sophisticated investors, but for the best one is nothing more than an extra data point in their complex risk-return simulation modeling.

Many startups deliberatively choose then to not patent any internally generated innovation, and most of the time they do so for one or more of the following reasons:

• They are too early-stage: the…