AI Can’t Hold Patents — US Patent and Trademark Office

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), through a new policy, has embraced the integration of AI in innovation. At the same time, the office stressed the necessity of attributing a human contributor to a patent.

This guidance clarifies that while AI-assisted inventions are not automatically ineligible for patents, the assessment of inventorship should prioritize human input.

The USPTO will examine inventorship matters as AI systems, such as generative AI, become more prevalent in the innovation landscape. Patents serve to encourage and recognize human creativity, thus warranting a focus on human contributions during the inventorship evaluation, the patent office said.

Previously, President Biden, through his AI executive order (EO), called on the agency to provide guidance to patent examiners and applicants on the same.

According to USPTO Director and Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property Kathi Vidal, the office will also provide guidelines to examiners and stakeholders on discerning the level of human contribution necessary for an innovation to be eligible for a patent, especially in cases where AI has also played a role in its development.

Moreover, the USPTO will also consult the U.S. Copyright Office to issue recommendations to the President on potential executive actions relating to copyright and AI, including addressing the scope of protection for works produced using AI and the treatment of copyrighted works in AI training, Vidal wrote in an official blog post.