Context: The acceleration of investment in artificial intelligence (AI), from machine learning to natural language processing, to agentic systems, and computer vision, has led to a surge of over 2,000% in the volume of worldwide AI-related patent filings in the last 10 years, according to CIPHER. So far, there have not been any official collective licensing programs or patent pools directly engaged in this business, although pool administrator Via Licensing Alliance has indicated that it plans to heavily leverage AI to unlock new lines of business and streamline operations and processes, for example (April 1, 2026 ip fray article).
What’s new: Anthropic, Genentech (a member of the Roche Group), IBM, Meta, and Microsoft have together launched a coalition named the Shared AI License Foundation (SAIL), which will facilitate the collaborative licensing of AI patents. eBay and TD Bank Group have also joined as SAIL board observers, and Block and Figma are also listed as members. The companies involved, which have collectively acquired and filed over 33,000 patents since 2019 (including the most recent five years of complete data), will together grant non-exclusive licenses to patents covering AI foundation models. The day-to-day operations of the initiative will be run by IP consultancy firm Jamster Capital LLC (led by RPX co-founder John Amster).
Direct impact: SAIL is the first organization focusing specifically on “efficiently clearing patent rights to foundation model patents”. The institution notes that the rise in patenting, compounded by the complexity of the modern AI stack, risks increasing costs and diverting resources away from R&D, creating hurdles to bringing innovation to the marketplace – and SAIL aims to fix this by “creating a shared patent commons that provides freedom of action for SAIL members to confidently invest in technologies that infuse AI models”. This will ensure, it adds, that the benefits of AI development are “shared broadly”.
Wider ramifications: Global investment in AI is forecast to total $2.52 trillion in 2026, a 44% year-on-year increase from 2025, according to research firm Gartner (January 15, 2026 Gartner press release). Such a market will produce tens of thousands of patents (on top of the 2,000% surge we have seen in the last decade). According to SAIL, this will “inevitably” mean some assets falling into the hands of non-practising entities (NPEs), which will enforce them “regardless of their commercial success or relevance to the target”. The organization emphasizes that its mission is to ensure that the multi-trillion-dollar investment is “funneled into beneficial AI breakthroughs rather than being siphoned off by legal friction”.