Accenture to bring AI tools to Patent Office
Gettyimages.com/Dmitrii Balabanov
By
Nick Wakeman
The agency wants to incorporate more artificial intelligence techniques and methods into the patent examination process.
Accenture Federal Services has booked a five-year, $75 million contract to increase the use of artificial intelligence and work on modernizing patent examinations at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
The agency processes hundreds of thousands of patent applications. All of them are reviewed before a patent is issued.
Accenture Federal has been working with USPTO for four years to support new ways of working. That includes the development of AI tools in patent examinations, said Rasha Nahas, a managing director for Accenture Federal Services and client account lead for the Commerce Department.
“Our team is helping the agency strengthen the IP system, improve operations, and build a roadmap for future modernization by scaling, what was initially a pilot prototype, into an AI-based production environment with a suite of tools available to patent examiners and the public,” said Denise Zheng, Accenture Federal Services’ chief AI officer.