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USPTO Revised Inventorship Guidance for AI-Assisted Inventions
The USPTO 2025 revised guidance applies the human conception standard to AI-assisted inventions.
Citation: USPTO, Revised Inventorship Guidance for AI-Assisted Inventions, 90 Fed. Reg. 54,636 (Nov. 28, 2025)
Type: Guidance
Jurisdiction: Federal
Issuing body: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Status: Current guidance; the February 2024 guidance was rescinded in its entirety on November 28, 2025
The revised guidance applies no special inventorship test when AI is involved: the traditional standard of human conception governs every application. If a natural person conceived the invention, that person is an inventor, regardless of which tools, including AI systems, assisted along the way. The 2024 framework had layered a multi-factor analysis drawn from the Pannu decision onto AI-assisted inventorship; the revised guidance drops that overlay, so the Pannu factors now apply only to joint inventorship disputes among multiple natural persons. An AI system cannot be named as an inventor, and foreign priority applications naming an AI system as the sole inventor will not be accepted for priority claims.
Related guides.
Sources.
- Federal Register: Revised Inventorship Guidance for AI-Assisted Inventions
- USPTO: Revised Inventorship Guidance notice
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