USPTO issues revised inventorship guidance for AI-assisted inventions
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today published revised inventorship guidance for AI-assisted inventions, rescinding its February 2024 guidance on this topic in its entirety.
The new guidance underscores longstanding precedent that the same legal standard for determining inventorship applies to all inventions, regardless of whether AI systems were used in the inventive process. No new, separate or modified standard is created for or applies to AI-assisted inventions.
A hallmark of U.S. law is that only natural persons can be properly named as inventors on patent applications. “'[I]nventor' means the individual . . . who invented or discovered the subject matter of the invention.” 35 U.S.C. § 100(f). The “'invention' in the Patent Act unquestionably refers to the inventor’s conception.” Pfaff v. Wells Elecs., Inc., 525 U.S. 55, 60 (1988). That remains the case today. The USPTO presumes that the inventors named on the application data sheet or oath/declaration are the actual, human-being inventors. AI systems, including generative AI and other computational models, are tools used by human inventors. Like any tool, while AI systems may assist inventors, such tools do not qualify for or elevate such assistance to inventor status.
The new guidance implements Executive Order 14179 of January 23, 2025 (“Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence”), which directs agencies to review and revise policies established under the prior administration to ensure they promote American leadership in AI.
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