EPI Guidelines - Use of Generative AI for Patent Attorneys
Generative AI is already changing how patent attorneys work, and those that use AI platforms, such as Solve Intelligence’s Patent Copilot, are reporting efficiency gains and higher quality outputs.
As the uptake of generative AI increases amongst patent attorneys, professional bodies are starting to consider best-practice and standards for using this technology.
The European Patent Institute (epi) recently released comprehensive guidelines detailing how patent attorneys can responsibly integrate AI into their workflows. These guidelines emphasise ethics, professionalism, and accountability when using AI. In this article, we set out the key takeaways of the guidelines, and how, at Solve Intelligence, we empower attorneys to use AI in line with these guidelines, ensuring that our Patent Copilot remains a powerful but controllable tool for assisting in patent practice.
Overview of the Guidelines
The epi guidelines outline eight core principles for attorneys to follow when utilising generative AI. We’ve highlighted these principles and how Solve Intelligence supports compliance with them below.
- Understanding AI’s Capabilities and Limitations
Generative AI, while powerful, can produce factually incorrect outputs. Patent attorneys should remain vigilant, reviewing AI-generated content critically to ensure accuracy.- How We Help: Here at Solve Intelligence, we routinely test and guard against hallucinations, and ensure that AI is used transparently such that it is distinguishable from user-entered text in our products, through the use of distinctive highlighting and tracked-changes, for example.
- Confidentiality and Data Protection
Confidentiality is paramount in patent practice. Attorneys should be aware of security and confidentiality provisions for a specific AI tool, before entering any sensitive information.- How We Help: Security is our number one priority here at Solve Intelligence. Our products are completely sandboxed to our customers, such that there is no third-party monitoring or AI model training of any sort within our products. This ensures information entered into our products is kept confidential.
- Ensuring Professional Responsibility
Despite AI assistance, attorneys should be fully responsible for all outputs submitted to patent offices or clients. AI is a tool—not a replacement for professional judgement.- How We Help: Our Patent Drafting Copilot is designed from the bottom-up specifically for use by patent attorneys. We know that patent attorneys provide tremendous value and expertise, and are needed to ensure any output is of the required quality and accuracy. As well as providing clear distinction between manual inputs and AI inputs, our products also include various review functionalities to help attorneys proof-read and check work products generated within our products before they are ready for filing or sending to clients.
- Transparency in Client Communication
Attorneys should be clear about how AI is used in their processes, ensuring clients are informed and approving of its role.- How We Help: Here at Solve Intelligence, we are able to help our customers where needed, by providing relevant documentation and guidance relating to our policies, so that they can easily explain how AI will be used to their clients.
- Maintaining Legal Compliance
The evolving regulatory environment, including the European AI Act, requires attorneys to remain compliant with legal standards when using AI.- How We Help: We continuously monitor legal developments, and regulations such as the EU AI Act, to ensure that our platform is compliant and aligns with new regulations.
- Independent Accounts/Prompts for different Client work
Using some general AI tools with specific prompts for one client may equate to ‘training’ the AI - which could then be used for different clients, raising confidentiality concerns.- How We Help: As previously stated, data entered into our platform is not used for training of any sort. Furthermore, we offer our customers separate, individual accounts. Sharing data such as prompts made by a user, between different accounts, (for example with a colleague), requires the permission of the user. In this way we ensure that the attorney user retains control.
- Attorneys can freely state their use of AI, but are not obliged to do so to the EPO or UPC
Attorneys may wish to publish material indicating how they use AI and the benefits associated with it.- How We Help: We are transparent and happy to explain how AI is being used in our products to our customers, so that they can simply and effectively communicate this in websites and similar publications.
- Fair and Transparent Fees
Efficiency gains from AI may translate to cost-effective services for clients. Attorneys may charge, at levels fairly reflecting the difficulty or extent of the task, for setting up or training of AI tools, AI tool subscription fees and for checking AI-generated work.- How We Help: We are very transparent with our customers regarding pricing, allowing our customers to more clearly plan how the use of our tools may affect the fees they charge.
A Balanced Future with AI as a tool for attorneys
The epi Guidelines on Generative AI Use emphasise that, while AI offers immense potential, it must be implemented thoughtfully and responsibly. At Solve Intelligence, we ensure that patent attorneys are kept at the helm of our products. In this way, we give patent practitioners the control needed to reap AI's benefits while mitigating its associated challenges.
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