AI Semiconductor Technologies, Blockchain for Healthcare Data, and Self-Driving Vehicle Prioritization

For Christmas Day—and this year the start of Hanukkah as well!—IPWatchdog is back with its annual list of top technologies from patents issued this year by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). This time around, the list features a host of semiconductor technologies, reflecting the critically important nature of computer chips to today’s international economy. Artificial intelligence is another recurring theme that often intersects with microprocessor innovations, as this year’s list underscores. A few of this year’s selections also reflect the still uncertain nature of patent validity law, which may or may not wind up threatening some of the patent rights featured below.

#1: U.S. Patent No. 11875246, Intelligent FODAS System and Method Based on AI Chip

While generative artificial intelligence (AI) stole the mainstream spotlight among AI applications during 2024, our #1 patent for 2024 represents both an important AI application with broad use scenarios, but also the rise of China as a major originator of fundamental technologies. The ‘246 patent, issued in January to Sichuan Guangsheng IOT Technology from China’s Chengdu High-Tech Zone, claims an advance to distributed optical fiber sensing technologies improving oil and gas exploration and warning systems for both weather disasters and military combat.

The ‘246 patent claims an intelligent fiber optical distributed acoustic sensing (FODAS) with an AI chip data processor and an optical fiber comprising both a circulator and sensing fiber. The claimed invention provides ultra precise real-time monitoring of long-distance networks by addressing constraints faced by central processing units (CPUs) under the parallel processing demands of AI algorithms.

#2: U.S. Patent No. 11895219, Artificial Intelligence Calculation Semiconductor Device and Storage Device Comprising the Same

Improvements to hardware powering AI applications are disclosed by the ‘219 patent, issued in February to Korean tech conglomerate Samsung Electronics, which has overtaken IBM as the top U.S. patent recipient in recent years. The technology claimed by this year’s second-place patent aims to prevent leakage of sensitive personal information by providing a semiconductor device with an improved calculation speed capable of homomorphic encryption performed on cipher text without decrypting the text.

The ‘219 patent claims an AI calculation semiconductor device having a multiply and accumulator calculator that executes a homomorphic encryption by generating second cipher texts, performing cyclic shifts to obtain a plurality of rotated cipher texts, and executing multiplication, addition and subtraction calculations on the rotated cipher texts. The rotation of the cipher texts reduces the amount of calculations required to perform homomorphic encryption by enabling simple matrix multiplication techniques.

#3: U.S. Patent No. 12143380, Nullifying Biometrics

Many financial services companies expect that the use of biometric identifiers for secure authorization techniques will eventually replace traditional passwords. The third-place ‘380 patent, issued in November to American telecom giant AT&T, claims a technology providing an impermanent biometric that addresses system recognition failures. The claimed system determines an expiration of a nullifying biometric from an image, deciding whether to deny authentication according to natural physiological processes associated with the nullifying biometric. Preferred embodiments of the invention include machine-readable barcodes printable on nail plates or human hair, with expiration determined by natural grow rates.

#4: U.S. Patent No. 11965177, Method of Manufacturing Dual-Specific T-Cells for Use in Cancer Immunotherapy

Modern medicine has made great inroads against cancer through the use of patient immunotherapies. The Versiti Blood Research Institute Foundation of Milwaukee, WI, was issued the ‘177 patent in April. It claims a purified population of autologous dual-specific lymphocytes isolated from a patient and expressing an endogenous receptor for a tumor-associated antigen. The technology improves the effectiveness of adoptive cell transfer against solid tumors, which exhibit a immunosuppressive microenvironment and reduced T cell migration.

#5: U.S. Patent No. 11984205, Non-Fungible Token Systems and Methods for Storing and Accessing Healthcare Data

Blockchain technologies are again in focus with the price of bitcoin soaring past $100,000 USD. Medical technology developer Carlsmed of Carlsbad, CA, was issued the ‘205 patent in May, claiming a blockchain-enabled medical implant along with associated systems and methods for storing and accessing healthcare data in blockchain-managed digital filing cabinets. The claimed medical implant includes a proximity communication component and a memory storing a private key enabling an external device to access electronic medical records of a patient from a distributed blockchain ledger. The use of blockchain-enabled implants enables the recovery of patient data if a patient is unconscious following an accident while improving security for patient records.

#6: U.S. Patent No. 12073720, Vehicle-to-Vehicle Payment System for Traffic Prioritization in Self-Driving Vehicles

Independent inventors are a critical if small portion of the American innovator community and the sixth-place ‘720 patent issued to Matthew Roy of Montreal, Canada, this August claims an intriguing method of prioritizing traffic for the coming advent of autonomous vehicles. The claimed vehicle includes a processor cooperating with a radiofrequency data transceiver to receive a price for traffic prioritization determined by a central server that facilitates transactions for requests to prioritize traffic. Unfortunately, the claimed advance leverages a range of navigational and imaging tools already used by self-driving cars, leaving questions as to whether this and other granted patents on this list would survive a validity challenge under current Section 101 jurisprudence.

#7: U.S. Patent No. 12061999, Systems and Methods for Automated Damage Estimation

The ‘999 patent, issued to insurance provider United States Automobile Association in August, is another example of a technology solving industry problems that could face validity issues under current Section 101 law. This patent claims a machine-readable medium comprising instructions executable to generate a virtual model of an environment based upon pre-event image data, an inventory list comprising items identified in the virtual model having a value exceeding a threshold amount, and a comparison report indicating a change in state of inventory items and a loss estimate. While it could be argued that humans have long performed these techniques in the insurance industry, the resulting invention increases the accuracy of loss assessments while eliminating the need for adjusters with prior knowledge of the property.

#8: U.S. Patent No. 12070912, Use of Expanded and Hydrophobic Popcorn to Produce Three-Dimensional Shaped Parts

The eighth-placed patent in this year’s list reflects materials engineering conducted at Germany’s University of Göttingen for the creation of light, flexible molded articles with less flammability and better recycling characteristics than plastics. Issued this August, the ‘912 patent claims a molded article made from a compound comprised of popcorn particles, about 95% of which by weight are surrounded by a hydrophobic polymer, and a binder. Along with puffed corn, the popcorn of this invention could be created from quinoa, amaranth, rice or wheat.

#9: U.S. Patent No. 11883031, Device for Restricting Blood Flow to Aneurysms

Brain aneurysms are very difficult to detect and can impact people of any age. Issued in January to Israeli medical technology developer EndoStream, the ‘031 patent claims a device configured to cover an orifice of a vascular malformation to restrict blood flow, fostering gradual healing of an aneurysm while preventing recanalization, which occurs in about 30% of aneurysms.

#10: U.S. Patent No. 12060517, Thermal Conductive Silicone Composition, Semiconductor Device, and Method for Manufacturing the Same

Number 10 is another semiconductor advance, this one designed to create favorable heat-dissipating properties in the face of increased heat output due to higher clock frequencies of today’s CPUs. Issued to Japanese conglomerate Shin-Etsu Chemical, the ‘517 patent claims a silicone composition including organopolysiloxane pre-ceramic polymer, an organohydrogenpolysiloxane cross-linking agent and a catalyst for adding silicone-hydrogen to unsaturated bonds.

#11: U.S. Patent No. 12084672, Genetically Engineered Land Plants That Express an Increased Seed Yield Protein and/or an Increased Seed Yield RNA

Government projections show demand for food increasing across the world over the next few decades due to both population growth and increasing incomes. The ‘672 patent, issued in September to Yield10 Bioscience of Woburn, MA, claims a genetically engineered land plant with increased expression of a protein to promote higher seed, fruit and tuber yield. The use of proteins already present in the food and oilseed crops embodying the invention is intended to overcome the challenges of regulatory approval and social acceptance of transgenic plants using genetically-modified organisms (GMO). Regulatory approval for a single GMO trait can cost in excess of $100 million, according to the ‘672 patent’s specification.

#12: U.S. Patent No. 12154060, UAV Facility

Drone delivery services could enable retailers to reach many more customers, but the complexity of such services increases with the volume of shipments. Flirtey Holdings of Reno, NV, was issued the ‘060 patent in November to protect its unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) facility having a detector system that identifies delivery consignments by an identification code indicating physical characteristics of a payload. The identification code not only ensures accuracy of good delivery but can improve the handling of sensitive shipments or those with potentially harmful contents.