The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued revised inventorship guidance stating that the same legal standard for naming inventors applies to all patents, including those created with AI assistance; AI systems are treated as tools (like lab equipment or software) and cannot be listed as inventors.
The notice rescinds the USPTO’s February 2024 AI guidance and withdraws use of the Pannu joint-inventor factors for AI cases, clarifying that inventorship hinges on a human’s conception under existing statute and caselaw.
The office cites the Federal Circuit’s Thaler v. Vidal decision, confirming that only a natural person may be named as an inventor; assignments from, or inventorship by, an AI system remain impermissible.
A USPTO update summarizing the change was posted alongside the Federal Register publication.
