The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued guidance on Artificial Intelligence and inventorship, including issues related to using AI in the inventive process on Feb. 13, 2024. This guidance applies to all applications and patents regardless of their filing dates, and aims to inform both examiners at the USPTO as well as applicants for patents how to assess inventorship for inventions that have been impacted by AI.
The major theme of the guidance, which is consistent with earlier USPTO decisions and announcements, is that AI can be used in the inventive process. However, only humans can be inventors, with the guidance stating that the “the inventorship analysis should focus on human contributions, as patents function to incentivize and reward human ingenuity.”
