OpenAI said in a brief statement Friday that it is "committed to the principles of broad access, collaboration, and safety for beneficial AI," and that "we recognize the role that patents play in the technology landscape, and commit to using our patents in a way that supports innovation and our dedication to our mission."
"We support the efforts of others in the use and development of AI model technology," the ChatGPT creator said. "We pledge to only use our patents defensively, so long as a party does not threaten or assert a claim, initiate a proceeding, help someone else in such activities against us, or engage in activities that harm us or our users."
The pledge seemingly leaves the door open for OpenAI to file "defensive" patent suits against others that take action against it first, such as filing a lawsuit or engaging in activities that the firm believes has harmed it.
A representative for OpenAI did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for further information about the pledge, including what the company would deem a defensive use of its patents or an action by others that harms the company or its users.
The pledge may have a limited immediate impact, since OpenAI reportedly has only a small number of patents. According to a May analysis published by the intellectual property services firm GreyB, the company currently holds four issued patents, all of them in the U.S., as well as two pending U.S. patent applications.
GreyB said that OpenAI's issued patents, all four of which were granted earlier this year, cover technology for improving the training of natural language models, and for creating an image based on a text description, which appears to be related to the company's AI image generator DALL-E.
OpenAI's pending applications relate to generating computer code based on natural language input and, conversely, generating natural language based on computer code input.
Tesla, whose CEO Elon Musk co-founded OpenAI, made a similar patent pledge in 2014, stating that the electric-vehicle maker would not assert its patents against companies that use its technology "in good faith."
The automaker later elaborated that it defined companies using its patents in good faith as those that do not assert intellectual property rights against Tesla, challenge the company's patents or sell "knockoffs" of its products. Tesla also identified hundreds of patents that are subject to the pledge, which excludes many of the company's thousands of patents.
While he had a role in creating OpenAI, Musk has since fallen out with the AI firm. He filed a lawsuit in August against the company, accusing its leaders of fraud for turning the former nonprofit into a for-profit company.
Musk has been vocal about his dim view of patents, claiming in interviews that "patents are for the weak" and that "most patents are BS" and serve no purpose other than generating lawsuits.
But despite his pronouncement that Tesla's pledge about its patents mean that "anyone can use them," the wording allows the company to file "defensive" patent suits in some situations, akin to those suggested in OpenAI's statement.
Tesla has in fact filed at least one patent suit against a company that accused the car company of patent infringement first. In 2023, Tesla sued Australian energy storage company CAP-XX Ltd. in the Eastern District of Texas, accusing it of infringing two patents on electrodes used in batteries called supercapacitors. The patents were not among those listed as being covered by Tesla's pledge.
The complaint came after CAP-XX filed a 2019 patent suit against Tesla subsidiary Maxwell Technologies Inc. in Delaware over supercapacitor technology. In December, a Delaware jury found that Maxwell did not infringe CAP-XX's patents.
Tesla and CAP-XX agreed to settle that case in May, as well as Tesla's infringement suit against CAP-XX in Texas.
Tesla has many more patents than OpenAI. GreyB reported last week that Tesla holds 3,442 patents worldwide, while Musk's spacecraft company SpaceX has 202 patents globally, and Musk personally holds a portfolio of 23 patents.
According to the GreyB analysis, OpenAI's four issued patents are U.S. Patent Nos. 11,922,550; 11,922,144; 11,886,826; and 11,887,367.
--Editing by Alanna Weissman.
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