Shabbi Khan on Gen AI's Increasing Role in Product Design— 'Who is the Inventor?'

Foley & Lardner LLP partner Shabbi Khan was quoted in the TechTarget article, “Generative AI’s Role Grows in Manufacturing, But Legal, Technical Risks Remain,” discussing the increasing use of generative AI in manufacturing product design.

“To be able to get a patent, the inventor has to be a human being. And the question becomes, who is the inventor?”  Khan commented, pointing out that large language models are rapidly advancing. “We’re pretty much at the point now where LLMs can give you an answer — and that’s the invention.”

However, he cautioned that misrepresenting AI-generated inventions as human-created could pose legal risks. “You have an obligation to the patent office,” Khan explained. “You have the duty of good faith and candor, which includes declaring that you are the true inventor of this technology.”

“You may get away with it, and nobody will notice until something gets litigated,” he continued, “And if somebody comes across your LLM history, it could really jeopardize certain things.”

“Don’t use the output as is,” Khan added as a practical guardrail for manufacturers. “Think about tweaks, go experiment with it, modify it.”