By Will McCurdy
Publication Date: 2025-11-29 16:31:00
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has clarified its basic rules for AI-powered inventions. The new guidelines state that inventors are free to use AI systems during their invention process, without those AI systems becoming legitimate co-inventors.
“They are comparable to laboratory equipment, computer software, research databases or other tools that support the inventive process,” says the guidance, first published by Reuters. The same principles apply to AI systems: “While they may provide services and generate ideas, they remain tools used by the human inventor who conceived the claimed invention.”
“Artificial intelligence systems cannot be named as inventors or co-inventors in a patent application, regardless of their complexity, because they are not natural persons.”
When multiple people create an invention with AI assistance, the organization applies its traditional principles of co-invention, including the so-called…
