Can AI Invent? USPTO Provides Guidance on AI-Impacted Inventorship
"Where is the line between AI rising to the role of inventor and mere AI assistance for human inventors?" write Jeffrey Weinick and Drew Berweger of CSG Law's patent group.
March 27, 2024 at 10:00 AM
6 minute read
Patent Licensing and Transactions
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."
|If AI was used to some extent in developing your invention, who should be named as an inventor?
Only humans can be inventors, so for there to be correct inventorship, all actual inventors must be human; but where is the line between AI rising to the role of inventor and mere AI assistance for human inventors?
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