US Patent Office answers if AI can be considered an inventor and it rejects what Biden government said

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued new guidelines clarifying the patentability of inventions developed with the help of artificial intelligence, formally classifying generative AI systems as tools rather than creators. In a notice scheduled for publication later this week, USPTO Director John Squires established that the agency views AI software as "analogous to laboratory equipment, computer software, research databases, or any other tool that assists in the inventive process."

The new guidance reportedly emphasizes that while AI can facilitate innovation, the legal credit for an invention must remain with a human. "They may provide services and generate ideas, but they remain tools used by the human inventor who conceived the claimed invention," the office stated, as per a report by Reuters. "When one natural person is involved in creating an invention with the assistance of AI, the inquiry is whether that person conceived the invention under the traditional conception standard."

AI cannot be an inventor

While the office reiterated its previous stance that AI itself cannot be named an inventor under U.S. law, the new guidelines mark a shift in policy regarding how AI-assisted claims are evaluated. The USPTO explicitly rejected the framework utilized during former President Joe Biden’s administration. That previous approach relied on standards typically used to determine "joint inventorship" among multiple people to decide if an AI-assisted invention was patentable.

Instead, the office is returning to foundational patent principles. "The same legal standard for determining inventorship applies to all inventions, regardless of whether AI systems were used in the inventive process," the office said Wednesday. "There is no separate or modified standard for AI-assisted inventions."

This administrative update arrives as the legal system continues to grapple with the rise of generative technology. While U.S. courts have ruled that AI systems cannot receive patents for inventions they generate entirely on their own, they have not yet issued rulings on when a human may receive a patent for work conceived with significant AI assistance.