CNIPA issues trial guidelines for artificial intelligence applications, from inventorship to disclosure of the model

China National Intellectual Property Administration, Guidelines for Patent Applications for AI-Related Inventions (Trial) (人工智能相关发明专利申请指引（试行）), with an explanatory note and Frequently Asked Questions, issued 31 December 2024

The China National Intellectual Property Administration issued the Guidelines for Patent Applications for AI-Related Inventions (Trial), which its accompanying Frequently Asked Questions describe as a policy interpretation under the current patent law. The guidelines sort applications into four types: the algorithm or model itself, a function or field application based on one, inventions made with artificial intelligence assistance, and inventions generated by artificial intelligence without a substantive human contribution. An artificial intelligence system is not a civil subject and cannot be an inventor, and the request form may not name an entity, a collective or an artificial intelligence. Under Article 25 and Article 2(2) of the Patent Law, a claim whose only substance is an abstract algorithm, with artificial intelligence named only in the preamble, is excluded. The Frequently Asked Questions treat "a computer system for training a neural network" whose memory and processor merely carry instructions and whose effect is faster training as not a technical solution, while a training method that chooses a single-processor or multi-processor scheme by the size of the training data has a specific technical association with the computer without changing its structure. On sufficiency under Article 26(3), the Office acknowledges the "black box" problem and asks that the specification fully describe the part that contributes over the prior art. Algorithm features that functionally support technical features count toward inventive step.

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