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ARTICLE · 09 FEBRUARY 2026

The Human Element: USPTO Clarifies Inventorship For AI-Assisted Inventions

Holland & Knight
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Discussions and speculation about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on human labor and technological innovation have become commonplace.

United StatesIntellectual Property
Christie Masanka
Christie Masanka
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Discussions and speculation about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on human labor and technological innovation have become commonplace. As AI becomes an increasingly sophisticated tool in the landscape of technological innovation, questions surrounding its role in the inventive process have grown more pressing.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) first issued guidance to address this query on February 13, 2024 (2024 Guidance). This initial guidance based its assessment of AI-assisted inventions on the Pannu factors, a legal precedent used to determine whether multiple natural persons qualify as joint inventors. Pannu v. Iolab Corp., 155 F.3d 1344 (Fed. Cir. 1998). Regarding the applicability of the Pannu factors to AI-assisted inventions, the USPTO stated:

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