Last year, as reported in a memo recently obtained by WIRED, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued internal guidance that its examiners and other employees cannot use generative artificial intelligence (AI) for any purpose. The memo, authored by USPTO chief information officer Jamie Holcombe, expressed security and bias concerns associated with
Microsoft Patent Aims to Eliminate AI Hallucinations
Microsoft is developing a way to eliminate hallucinations, or false responses, in artificial intelligence (AI) models. It filed U.S. Patent Application No. 18/140,658, entitled “Interacting with a Language Model using External Knowledge and Feedback,” in April 2023. The application published on October 31, 2024, and became available for public inspection.
The patent specification describes a
Ex-Yahoo! Patents Asserted Against Fashion Retainer Shein
In the early to mid-2000s, Yahoo! worked to develop and refine its search engine capabilities. During this period, Yahoo! obtained U.S. Patent Nos. 8,341,157, 7,698,329; 8,209,317; 9,805,097; and 8,527,623, which are generally related to improving the quality of search engine results. For example, the ’623 Patent relates to a method of detecting a user vacillation
Honeywell Asserts Barcode-Scanning Patents Against Scandit AG
Swiss company Scandit AG created an application called ShelfView, which enables retailers to verify the prices of various products and ensure that associated promotions are correctly updated. The application utilizes barcode scanning, optical character recognition, and augmented reality to analyze a store’s current inventory and make recommendations on any needed adjustments. Scandit has also developed
Artists’ Copyright Infringement Suit Against AI Companies Can Proceed
In 2023, visual artists Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, and Karla Ortiz filed a class action lawsuit against several Artificial Intelligence (AI) companies, alleging that the companies’ various AI models violated copyright law by using the artists’ work in their training data sets. In ruling on the defendants’ motion to dismiss in August 2024, Judge William