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ARTICLE · 23 FEBRUARY 2024

PTO Provides Guidance On Inventions Created With Help From Artificial Intelligence

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On February 13, 2024, the USPTO (PTO) published its guidance for inventions made with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI).

United StatesIntellectual Property
John D. Lanza
John D. Lanza
Peter Sullivan
Peter Sullivan
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Key Takeaways:

  • The PTO will be applying traditional principles of inventorship to determine if a natural person is an inventor.
  • Practitioners will need to discuss these tenets with inventors so that they understand the parameters for using artificial intelligence (AI) as part of the invention process. 

On February 13, 2024, the USPTO (PTO) published its guidance for inventions made with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI). The PTO published the guidance in response to the directive it received in the Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence issued October 20, 2023.

The PTO clarifies how AI-assisted inventions should be classified. It acknowledges recent case authority from the Federal Circuit in Thaler v. Vidal, 43 F.4th 1207 (Fed. Cir. 2022), which held only natural persons can be inventors. The PTO in this guidance details how to address patentability and inventorship when AI has a

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