There is an interesting article at http://www.genetic-programming.org/gp4chapter1.pdf that discussed Genetic Programming.
Novelty and creativity are prerequisites for patentability. A new idea that can be
logically deduced from facts that are known in a field, using transformations that are
known in a field, is not considered to be patentable by the Patent Office. A new idea
is patentable only if there is an “illogical step” (that is, a logically unjustified step) that
distinguishes the proposed invention from that which is readily deducible from what
is already known.
From the paper (it’s actually a book excerpt) it says that Genetic Programming can lead to automated solutions to problems that are in themselves patentable. The US Patent Office will grant a patent to an invention that is machine generated. Look to the future where unless you approach AI problems via a Genetic Programming approach your company will be left in the patent trolley dust.
IANAL but using standard AI methods (category matching which it looks like the patent under question is doing) doesn’t seem like it should qualify as a patent. I’m thinking that this patent is not so novel if so many other companies have reproduced it independently.
