Patent Office Scraps Biden-Era AI-Assisted Inventorship Guidance

The US Patent and Trademark Office rescinded and replaced the Biden administration’s guidance for examining patent applications for AI-assisted inventions, calling the previous framework inapplicable.

The 2024 guidance incorrectly applied factors used to assess joint inventorship for considering AI-assisted inventions and is inapplicable because AI systems can’t be inventors, the PTO said in a notice scheduled to publish in the Federal Register Nov. 28. The new guidance says the same legal standard for inventorship should apply whether or not AI was used in the process.

The Biden-era guidance, issued in February 2024, applies factors from the US Court of ...