USPTO Releases Inventorship Guidance For AI-assisted Inventions

The USPTO released inventorship guidance on February 12, 2024, for inventions assisted by artificial intelligence (AI). The Federal Circuit previously held that an AI system cannot be listed as an inventor in Thaler v. Vidal, 43 F.4th 1207 (Fed. Cir. 2022), and this release provides guidance regarding the open question of human inventorship for inventions developed by a person working with the assistance of an AI system.

At the outset, the USPTO guidance states that inventions developed with assistance from an AI system are still patentable, as long as a human inventor "significantly contributed" to the invention. The guidance also notes that even though patentability may be allowed even where the AI system is "instrumental" in the creation of the claimed invention, the requirement for a significant contribution from a human inventor applies to each and every claim of the patent application.