Are Patent Offices Being Inundated with Low-Quality AI-Generated ‘Slopplications’?

‘AI slop’, defined as ‘low-quality content created by generative AI, often containing errors, and not requested by the user’, was named Word of the Year for 2025 by the Macquarie Dictionary.  Replace ‘content’ with ‘applications’, and ‘user’ with ‘patent office’ – let’s call them ‘AI slopplications’ – and we would have a good definition of a phenomenon that I suspect is occurring at offices around the world.  In the first 10 months of 2025 (i.e. up until the end of October) the number of provisional applications filed at IP Australia by self-represented applicants was up by a whopping 174% over the previous five years’ average! The overwhelming majority of self-filed applications (98.6%) originate in Australia (i.e. have at least one Australian-resident applicant).

The number of self-filed standard patent applications has also increased, being 82% higher in the first 10 months of 2025 compared with the previous five years’ average.  However, the number of standard patent filings by self-represented applicants remains a small proportion of the total – just 2.6% of all applications filed up until the end of October – and so the significance and impact of this increase remains to be seen.

The only plausible explanation I can think of for this sudden jump in filings by self-represented applicants after years of relative stability in numbers is the increasingly widespread and affordable availability of generative AI.  What is not yet apparent is how applicants are using AI.  Are they using ChatGPT and similar tools to assist in drafting patent specifications describing inventions made wholly by human inventors?  Or are they also using AI to facilitate invention itself?

Either way, I fear that this will not end well for many of these self-filers.  To be clear, there is absolutely no question that AI tools based on large language models (LLMs) can be used to assist in drafting patent specifications.  In the hands of an experienced patent professional who understands the invention to be protected, the full legal requirements for protection, and the various national and international drafting principles, even a general-purpose tool such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, or Google’s Gemini can accelerate the process of preparing a quality patent specification.  But there are also many potential pitfalls to using these tools, and they do not embody the significant expertise, skill and experience of a competent patent professional.  And if the AI is also contributing to the invention, then there may be nothing that is legally protectable at all!

The good news for Australian patent attorneys is that the increase in DIY (with AI) provisional applications has not been accompanied by a corresponding decrease in applicants engaging professional assistance.  The number of provisional applications filed via registered attorneys and firms for the first 10 months of 2025 is down by just 3.2% on the past five years’ average.  And while this does reflect an ongoing decline over recent years, it indicates that the use of AI may be bringing new users to the patent system, rather than taking work from professional advisors.

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Tags: Artificial intelligence, Australia, Large Language Models, Patent analytics, Patent drafting, Patent Office, Patents and society, Provisional applications

Australian Provisional Filings Have Declined in 2020 in Almost Every Field of Technology… Except ‘Pharmaceuticals’

In my previous article, I observed that while the numbers of Australian provisional applications filed in 2020 up until May had been down on 2019, filings in June and July were higher than during the same period last year, and that overall numbers have thus far shown greater resilience than in the last major economic downturn, i.e. the global financial crisis (GFC) of 2007-2009.  I also noted back in May that many self-represented applicants, of both provisional and innovation patent applications, appeared to be directing their innovative attentions to problems arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic.  I have been wondering, therefore, whether there may be a similar trend in provisional filing activity more generally that is helping to prop up the numbers, despite economic pressures associated with the pandemic.

I have now conducted some analysis, and it appears that there may be evidence to support this hypothesis.  For the months of January to July, it appears that provisional filings associated with every industrial sector except chemistry are down compared with 2019 numbers, and that most of the growth within the chemistry sector can be attributed to pharmaceuticals.  This is certainly consistent with an enhanced focus on healthcare, quite likely prompted by the global pandemic.

If you are familiar with the Australian patent system, you may already be wondering how I managed to analyse the sectors and fields of technology associated with provisional filings.  Provisional applications are not published in full, and only limited bibliographic information is available, including the identity of the applicant, and the title of the application.  Only a small fraction of these applications are filed by applicants whose industry sector and/or technology interests may be readily identified, most being filed by small private companies and individuals.  That really leaves only the title as a means for ‘guessing’ the technology to which an application relates.  Fortunately, thanks to machine learning technology, and the availability of a large amount of data relating to the classification of prior patent applications, we can do quite a bit better than just guessing!

On the assumption that many readers will not be as interested in the technical details of the machine learning approach, this article includes:

1. a brief introduction to the machine learning model, sufficient to explain the classification system used, and generally how the model ‘learned’ to classify applications by title; and
2. some results of analysing provisional filings over the past few years, which show a general decline in application numbers in most fields of technology, with the exceptions of those relating to ‘instruments’, which have been fairly flat, and ‘chemistry’, which has experienced a boost so far this year.

For those interested, in a separate article I provide additional technical detail of the machine learning model, and how it performed in testing and validation, as well as discussing how accurate we might expect it to be on the provisional application data.

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Tags: Australia, Machine learning, Patent analytics, Provisional applications

What’s ‘Provisional’ About Provisional Applications?

Last week I wrote about one of the benefits of filing a provisional patent application – the ability, in most cases, to mark corresponding products or services as ‘patent pending’ or equivalent.  I have been thinking, however, that there is a bit more to be said about provisional applications.

Provisional applications are, in my experience, not very well understood among the general community.  For example, there remains a pervasive belief that a provisional application is something that can be prepared and filed quickly, casually and cheaply, and that this will provide all the protection needed for the first 12 months.  This may once have been true, in a somewhat limited sense, but it is certainly not the case in Australia any more.  It has, in any event, never been true for applicants who wish to pursue patent rights in foreign jurisdictions based on an initial provisional filing in Australia.

In fact, it is generally best to treat provisional filing with the same gravity as any other patent application process.  What, then, is the benefit of provisional applications?  And should you be filing them?

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Tags: Priority claim, Provisional applications, Strategy

Provisional Patent Pending?

One of the most common questions asked by any applicant or inventor after a new provisional application has been filed is: ‘can I now say “patent pending” about my product/service?’

You might think that the answer to this would be straightforward.  Ultimately, the client just wants a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.  Indeed, most patent attorneys will answer ‘yes’ without hesitation.  The main thing – we will tell our clients – is not to represent that you actually have a patent when all that you actually have is an application.

But is it really so simple?

I was given pause recently when someone asked this very question of IP Australia (@IPAustralia) on Twitter.  The answer that came back (across four Tweets that I have here concatenated into a single reply) was this:

A standard patent can only be enforced once it is granted. ‘Patent pending’ is used by some applicants to indicate they have lodged a patent application which has not been granted. A provisional patent is not a patent application per se and won’t result in a granted patent and hence saying 'patent pending' for a provisional application would be misleading.

I cannot say that I agree with this, and in particular I do not think there is anything misleading in using the phrase ‘patent pending’ while there is any form of application on-foot that has the potential to lead ultimately to granted patent rights.  However, there are laws that apply to the representations made in relation to patents and applications, and applicants do need to be careful about the claims they make with regard to patent rights.

The topic is therefore worthy of some closer investigation.

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Tags: Australia, Marking, Priority claim, Provisional applications

‘Professional’ Provisionals – Now More Important Than Ever

Anybody filing a provisional patent application now, and waiting the full 12 months before filing complete (non-provisional) applications in Australia and/or the United States, may be subject to revised patent laws in both countries.

Most of the substantive provisions of the Australian Raising the Bar Act commence on 15 April 2013, while the new ‘first-inventor-to-file’ provisions on the America Invents Act commence on 13 March 2013.  Both reforms have potentially significant impact on applications filed after these dates, even if these claim the benefit of provisional applications filed prior to commencement of the amendments.

In particular, as a result of the reforms, even though they have not yet fully commenced, it is now effectively imperative that any priority document, including a provisional application, provide full support for the invention as it is ultimately claimed in the complete, non-provisional, application.
‘…any provisional application filed now, and forming the basis for a complete application filed in 12 months time, will be completely worthless for priority purposes in Australia and the US unless it supports the invention across the full scope of the ultimate claims…’
The notion that a provisional application can provide a lower standard of disclosure, without prejudice to the applicant, was never really true.  But is is now more crucial than ever that this myth be dispelled.

There are a number of people ‘out there’ – principally serial inventors, inventor advocates and invention promotion companies – who are keen to tell you (often for a price) that you do not need a patent attorney to assist in the preparation and filing of a provisional patent application.  This, they say, is something any inventor can do for themselves, in order to obtain ‘meaningful’ protection for an invention at a low initial cost.

Sorry, but this is simply not true.  If you do not really know what you are doing, your provisional application may be worthless.  Indeed, it may be worse than worthless, if it provides you with a false sense of security that your invention is protected.

No doubt cynical readers will be thinking that this is exactly what you would expect a self-serving patent attorney to say.  Maybe so.  But after reading this article we hope you will at least be in a position to make an informed decision.

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Tags: Australia, Priority claim, Provisional applications, US

Patent Reform Exposed Part III – Provisional Specifications

In this article on IP Australia’s proposed reforms to the Patents Act 1990 we look at a change to subsection 40(1) of the Act, which relates to the level of disclosure required in a specification associated with a provisional patent application.

We presume that most readers ‘know’ that the purpose of a provisional application is to secure a priority date without having to meet the full burden of disclosure and formalities associated with a complete (nonprovisional) application.

Or is it?  It is legitimate to ask – what is the value of a provisional specification that provides less that a full and detailed disclosure of the invention, including at least one working embodiment?

DISCLOSURE REQUIRED IN A PROVISIONAL APPLICATION

The short answer to the above question is: not much value at all.  Even if it is the case that the Australian law is somewhat permissive regarding the level of disclosure required to establish priority from a provisional application, no other jurisdiction is remotely interested in according any special status to Australian provisional specifications.  Thus, for example, when an Australian filing is used as the basis for a priority claim in the US, or Europe, or Japan, or any other country (directly, or via an International Application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty), the level of disclosure required to sustain the priority date is no different whether the Australian application was provisional or complete.

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Tags: Australia, Law reform, Patent law, Provisional applications, Raising the Bar