The new United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) guidance, effective November 28, 2025, clarifies that only natural persons can be named as inventors on patents. AI systems are considered a tool used in the inventive process, not an inventor or joint inventor, regardless of their sophistication.
1. Human Conception is the Touchstone: The standard for inventorship remains “conception,” which means the formation in the inventor’s mind of a definite and permanent idea of the complete and operative invention. This traditional standard applies uniformly to all inventions, including those assisted by AI.
2. Human Conception is the Touchstone: The standard for inventorship remains “conception,” which means the formation in the inventor’s mind of a definite and permanent idea of the complete and operative invention. This traditional standard applies uniformly to all inventions, including those assisted by AI.
3. No Special Standard for AI: The USPTO has rescinded its previous 2024 guidance that applied a modified joint-inventorship analysis to human-AI collaboration scenarios. The traditional joint-inventorship principles (the Pannu factors) now only apply when determining inventorship among multiple human contributors.
4. Documentation of Human Contribution is Critical: Patent applicants must clearly demonstrate and document how a natural person conceived the invention. This includes capturing the inventor’s specific inputs, analysis of AI outputs, and decisions that lead to the final claimed invention.
5. Scope of Application: The guidance applies to utility, design, and plant patents. Any application listing an AI system as an inventor will be rejected.
6. Foreign Priority Claims: U.S. applications claiming priority to foreign filings must also list only natural persons as inventors. A priority claim to a foreign application naming an AI as the sole inventor will not be accepted.
Properly Document the Process: Maintain detailed records (e.g., inventor notebooks) of the human thought process, problem framing, and design choices made before and after using AI tools.
Focus on the Human’s Role: Ensure the patent application emphasizes how the human inventor’s contribution meets the conception standard for each claim, rather than merely presenting AI-generated outputs.
Audit Internal Policies: Companies should update internal invention disclosure forms and policies to align with these rules, ensuring only natural persons are identified as inventors.
Ready to protect your innovation? Perform a Patent Prior Art Search to locate prior art early to fully inform your filing strategy HERE, or directly file a Provisional Patent Application to claim the “Patent Pending” status by this LINK.