OpenAI – the owner of ChatGPT – has found itself in several intellectual property (IP) disputes lately. While most consumers think of OpenAI when they hear about ChatGPT, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) refuses to grant trademark protection to the company. Of course, certain protections could be available via ChatGPT patents.

To be clear, OpenAI does own patents for certain technologies. However, many of their processes remain unprotected. There’s a good reason behind this, though, and it’s one that showcases the company’s drive for secrecy.

Intellectual Property Difficulties for OpenAI

If you ask most consumers about ChatGPT, nearly all will know you’re referring to the popular AI chat system. One would think this would be enough for OpenAI to secure a trademark. Instead, the USPTO refuses to grant protections for “ChatGPT” or “GPT.” Their reasoning is that these terms are merely descriptive trademarks.

The government typically does not grant protection for trademarks that are descriptive in nature. “Chat” simply describes computer communication, and “GPT” is an acronym for “generative pre-trained transformer.” GPT is a type of neural network that isn’t exclusive to OpenAI. Essentially, there’s nothing unique about the name.

Even though the company doesn’t own registered trademarks, they’re still trying to protect them. And while OpenAI has appealed their denial, they’ve already found success in other areas of intellectual property protection. This is true even when they opt for no federal protection at all.

Does OpenAI Own ChatGPT Patents?

There’s a vast amount of intellectual property that OpenAI has not patented. However, it has also undertaken a strategic IP approach. The company promised long ago to be open and transparent with its technology. Even with their shift to a for-profit structure, they promised in their “Approach to Patents” that their patents would only be used “defensively.”

Of course, they said that defensive measures could be taken against those who “engage in activities that harm us or our users.” That’s a pretty broad statement, so even with such a promising pledge, the company could get aggressive with the patents it does own. These registrations protect systems related to:

• Language model-based text insertion
• Language model-based text editing
• Integrations of external APIs with natural language applications
• Hierarchical text-conditional image generation
• Training via machine learning
• Machine learning models for image generation

The company has these and several other patents (more than a dozen granted thus far). However, they stopped at seeking protection in other critical areas. Why would a company that’s so clearly focused on intellectual property protection not secure as many ChatGPT patents as possible? It all comes down to trade secrets.

The Benefits of Trade Secrets to OpenAI

More telling than the patents that OpenAI has for ChatGPT are the patents that it doesn’t have. When perusing their patent registrations, you’ll see several integral aspects of their company not listed. These include:

• Training datasets and the output created by this data
• Neural networks that serve as the system’s underlying architecture
• Algorithms used for critical learning processes

These are clearly important for OpenAI, so why are there no ChatGPT patents for them? Likely, it’s to secure heightened protection. While patents do prevent others from misusing a company’s technologies, they also make those technologies public.

Once a patent expires in 20 years, that public technology would be available for others to use. Trade secrets don’t have this issue. As long as a corporation can keep its processes confidential from the general public, they can prevent others from using it in perpetuity.

Disadvantages of Trade Secrets

Unfortunately for companies, there are caveats to trade secret protection. These include:

• Competitors can use tech if they independently invent or discover the same idea
• Trade secrets lose their protection once they’re disclosed
• Competitors may be able to reverse engineer technologies
• Internal leaks can nullify trade secret protection
• Requires ongoing secrecy measures
• Enforcement is difficult

Clearly, these can lead to significant problems. While trade secret litigation is possible, patents provide heightened protections while in effect. Still, OpenAI has apparently created an intellectual property strategy it believes will serve it over the long term.

With a combination of ChatGPT patents, trade secrets, and potential future trademarks – the company has a good chance of maintaining its spot at the top of the AI mountain.