The United States was once again the top ranked country in overall score in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s annual Global IP Index for 2018, but the rankings are closer than ever. This year the United States edged out the United Kingdom by a mere .01 points on the Chamber scale. The U.S. position was helped by improved scores relating to copyrights and trademarks, but was dragged down as the U.S. patent ranking decreased for the sixth consecutive year as the result of a patent climate that the Chamber characterizes as causing “considerable uncertainty for innovators.”  While the United States continues to do well overall, patent protection continues to be problematic. In 2017 the U.S. ranked 10th worldwide in terms of offering patent protection to innovators. This year, the U.S. fell out of the top 10, tumbling to a tie for 12th with Italy. Countries ahead of the United States for patent protection are (in order from first place on the Chamber patent index): Signapore, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. See page 35 of the Chamber report.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 39 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. In this particular report we cover two patents. The first covers the original work done on facial recognition to be used to unlock an electronic device. The second covers the Smart Keyboard's Smart Connector. We wrap up this week's granted patent report with our traditional listing of the remaining granted patents that were issued to Apple today.

Granted Patent: Locking and Unlocking a Mobile Device using Facial Recognition

Apple's newly granted patent covers their invention relating to a built-in camera captures one or more images, and the images are then analyzed to determine whether a user's face is present therein. If a user's face is not present in the images captured over a predetermined amount of time, the device automatically locks.

While Apple's iPhone X Face ID is far more advanced than their original patent that was filed back in 2011 and published in 2012, it laid a foundation of work towards the final authentication feature that departed from their long standing Touch ID.

Apple's granted patent 9,875,349 was originally filed in 2011 and updated in March 2017.

Granted Patent: iPad Pro Smart Keyboard Connector

Apple's newly granted patent covers their invention relating to the smart connector system used to connect their smart keyboard to the iPad Pro. Apple notes in their granted patent: "the host device may be connected to an accessory device in order to share data, power, or both.

Apple further noted that "Embodiments of the present invention may provide contact structures for devices, where contacts in the contact structures may provide a sufficient normal force to provide a good electrical connection with corresponding contacts while consuming a minimal amount of surface area, depth, and volume in a device, and where the contact structures may prevent or limit the ingress of fluid or debris into the device."

Crypterium (CRPT)

Crypterium is not the first crypto banking project out there, but it stands out as one of the top 50 most promising fintech companies, according to Financial IT and is backed by Keith Teare, co-founder of TechCrunch. The project team aims to create a global blockchain-based ecosystem where every transaction will be controlled with an easy-to-use e-wallet. It’s like having your bank in your pocket with immediate access to transfers, loans, and most importantly, instant contactless payments in crypto or fiat currency with no need for exchanges. It is also expected to be absolutely free for users, while commissions for merchants are set at 0,5%.

Coinlancer (CL)

The blockchain-based online freelancing market addresses plenty of current issues faced by freelancers and their clients, from delayed or failed payments to unreasonable account suspensions. Using blockchain, smart contracts, and digital signatures, Coinlancer has it all to make the freelancing market safe and trusted. The Coinlancer coin will be used for all the payments on the platform. Its potential market cap is limited and can’t be compared to the prospects of major cryptocurrencies, but the practical use case is clear and anticipated enough to make the coin a success.

DMarket Coin (DMC)

Cosmetic items from certain video games can be bought or sold on Steam or other platforms, but DMarket plans to turn the ill-organized trading into a new cluster of the global economy. The blockchain-based marketplace makes it possible for gamers to prove ownership of in-game items and buy, sell, or exchange them in one click without any risk of fraud.

DMarket has ambitions to integrate plenty of different virtual universes into a global market, and the agreement with several important video game publishers is already in place. The full launch of the platform is planned for Q1 2018, and the value of the coin is likely to surge soon after that. But the platform is already functioning as a marketplace – you can trade memorabilia items, called DMarket Founder’s Marks, there. The price of Founder’s Marks has already surged from a few cents to more than $100, confirming that the project is of great interest to the gaming community.

LOCIcoin (LOCI)

The most intriguing feature of the Loci platform is the InnVenn tool for searching and discovering patents. It leverages blockchain technology to offer inventors a simple, cost-effective, and secure way to monetize their ideas as a better alternative to traditional patent process. LOCIcoin is used for buying and selling the intellectual property on the platform. You can also buy an InnVenn subscription for 100 LOCI instead of paying the normal price of $249 per month.

Electroneum (ETN)

This coin is quite an exception to the list, as it doesn’t have a real innovation or an all-star team behind. It’s just another cryptocurrency intended to provide secure and private digital payment solution and focused on app-based mobile mining. But the project team managed to build hype around their product, conducting a highly successful ICO with 120,000 contributors and creating a strong community with more than 800,000 registered users on the platform. This is a good sign given that real-world mass adoption is the main target of Electroneum. The guys are definitely good at marketing, as well as negotiating with global mobile networks. Although the long-term prospects of ETN are questionable, the project looks capable of maintaining the hype throughout the year, especially since a full launch of the mobile miner is planned for Q1 2018.

The Situation: Artificial intelligence ("AI") technology is exploding across virtually all industries. Technology companies are innovating at warp speed, and even companies that do not principally identify as "technology companies" are becoming increasingly "high tech" in how they deliver goods and services. Innovation is outpacing the law—many aspects of AI legal protection are still open questions.

The Result: With innovation comes imitation … and infringement and misappropriation. Companies must be vigilant in protecting and enforcing their intellectual property ("IP") rights in AI.

Looking Ahead: The time is now to devise a legal strategy to protect IP in AI. Such strategy should consider not only patent protection but also copyrights and trade secrets.

The term "artificial intelligence" was coined more than 60 years ago and since has been the subject of countless science fiction books and movies. Just a few months ago, Blade Runner 2049 hit the theaters as a sequel to the original 1982 Blade Runner film, which imagined a futuristic world—in the year 2019—where synthetic, bioengineered humans run rampant. Here we are in 2018, and while Blade Runner's dystopian vision has thankfully not come to pass, there is no doubt that the future is now: AI has begun to infiltrate virtually all business sectors and nearly every aspect of the consumer experience.

The legal implications for AI are complex and constantly evolving, and they often take a back seat to the pressing business demands of bringing innovative technologies to market. That said, it is important for businesses today to implement a proactive and comprehensive strategy to protect their IP rights in AI. Such strategy should consider not only patent coverage but also copyright and trade secret protection, particularly for aspects of the IP that may not (rightly or wrongly) be patent eligible.

Patents can be a powerful form of protection for AI-related IP, particularly because independent creation is not a defense to patent infringement. But patents are not a complete solution. As an initial matter, patents are unavailable for certain facets of AI. For example, patents do not protect data compilations, such as AI training sets, a programmer's particular expression of source code, or other types of proprietary information that may be competitively advantageous and constitute a trade secret.

Moreover, the patent system in the United States presents uncertainties regarding patentability as it pertains to certain aspects of AI, such as software—since the Supreme Court's decision in Alice, many of these patents have been attacked and invalidated as patent ineligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101. Under this regime, the decision to seek a patent may have dire consequences—if a patent is sought but not obtained, or granted and then invalidated, the subject matter may have become public, rendering not only patent protection but also trade secret protection unavailable.

Finally, patents have a limited term of protection (20 years from the earliest filing date), after which the subject matter becomes dedicated to the public. In contrast, a copyright term is much longer (the author's life plus 70 years), and trade secret protection can theoretically last forever, as long as secrecy is maintained and the information is not publicly known. Thus, trade secret and copyright protection should be taken into account when developing an effective AI protection strategy.