USPTO Guidance on AI-Assisted Inventions

The United States Patent and Trademark Office issued revised inventorship guidance in November 2025. It clarifies that the same legal standard for determining inventorship applies to all inventions, whether or not an AI system was involved. The earlier February 2024 guidance is archived by the USPTO and should not be treated as the current policy. The updated guidance centers the analysis on human inventorship under existing law. An AI system is not a natural person and cannot be named as an inventor. That does not mean that an invention created with AI assistance is automatically unpatentable. A person who uses AI may qualify as an inventor if that person made the contribution required under the ordinary inventorship standard. The legal inquiry concerns the human contribution to conception, not how impressive or autonomous the software appears. Inventorship is separate from other patent questions. A filing still must satisfy applicable requirements such as eligible subject matter, novelty, nonobviousness, and adequate disclosure. The 2025 guidance addresses inventorship; it does not guarantee a patent, resolve ownership of AI outputs, decide copyright questions, or determine whether a particular AI-generated result is itself patentable. Those issues require separate analysis. The USPTO FAQ states that the guidance does not create a heightened inventorship standard for AI-assisted inventions and does not impose an additional duty to disclose the extent of AI use beyond existing requirements. Applicants and practitioners remain responsible for existing duties and for the accuracy of filings. In practice, teams should preserve evidence of how a concept developed and identify the people whose contributions meet the applicable standard. This overview is educational, not legal advice about a particular application.