Ordre public exceptions for algorithmic surveillance patents
This addresses legal and ethical challenges in patent law for policymakers and technologists, but it is incremental as it builds on existing ordre public exceptions.
The chapter examines whether algorithmic surveillance patents should be excluded from patentability due to human rights risks, concluding that exclusion is generally undesirable because the patent system cannot effectively assess such impacts and disclosure offers societal benefits by increasing transparency.
This chapter explores the role of patent protection in algorithmic surveillance and whether ordre public exceptions from patentability should apply to such patents, due to their potential to enable human rights violations. It concludes that in most cases, it is undesirable to exclude algorithmic surveillance patents from patentability, as the patent system is ill-equipped to evaluate the impacts of the exploitation of such technologies. Furthermore, the disclosure of such patents has positive externalities from the societal perspective by opening the black box of surveillance for public scrutiny.