IP Law Daily, AGENCY NEWS: USPTO issues new AI inventorship guidance rescinding previous position, (Dec 1, 2025)

By Brian Craig, J.D.

The same legal standard for determining inventorship applies to all inventions, regardless of whether AI systems were used in the inventive process.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued new guidance on the standards for determining inventorship for artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted inventions, rescinding the guidance from the previous administration announced in February 2024. The USPTO clarifies that the same legal standard for determining inventorship applies to all inventions, regardless of whether AI systems were used in the inventive process. The new guidance further provides that no separate or modified standard exists for AI-assisted inventions, and that AI cannot be named as an inventor or joint inventor because only natural persons can be named as inventors. The official notice for the new guidance was published in the Federal Register on Nov. 28, 2025.

Previous guidance rescinded. The new inventorship guidance rescinded guidance issued on February 13, 2024, under previous USPTO Director Kathi Vidal who was appointed by President Joseph Biden, which adopted a position on inventorship in the context of AI-assisted inventions. The 2024 guidance clarified that AI-assisted inventions are not categorically unpatentable and provided instructions to examiners and applicants on determining the correct inventors to be named in a patent or patent application for inventions created by humans with the assistance of one or more AI systems. The 2024 guidance built on the significant contribution test and factors from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s 1998 Pannu case (Pannu v. Iolab Corp., 155 F.3d 1344 (Fed. Cir. 1998)), which patent examiners have been applying for decades.

New guidance. The new guidance under current USPTO Director John Squires, appointed by President Donald Trump, rescinds the approach from the previous administration in its entirety.

“The Pannu factors only apply when determining whether multiple natural persons qualify as joint inventors,” said the new guidance. “Pannu is inapplicable when only one natural person is involved in developing an invention with AI assistance because AI systems are not persons and therefore cannot be ‘joint inventors’ so there is no joint inventorship question to analyze.” The USPTO clarifies that Pannu is inapplicable when only one natural person is involved in developing an invention with AI assistance because AI systems are not persons and therefore cannot be “joint inventors” so there is no joint inventorship question to analyze.

The new guidance underscores longstanding precedent that the same legal standard for determining inventorship applies to all inventions, regardless of whether AI systems were used in the inventive process. There is no separate or modified standard for AI-assisted inventions. No new, separate or modified standard is created for, or applies. to AI-assisted inventions. The USPTO clarifies that AI systems, including generative AI and other computational models, are tools used by human inventors. According to the USPTO guidance, these tools "are analogous to laboratory equipment, computer software, research databases, or any other tool that assists in the inventive process."

While AI systems may assist inventors, AI systems do not qualify for inventor status. The guidance follows the Federal Circuit holding that AI cannot be named as an inventor on a patent application (or issued patent) and that only natural persons can be inventors. AI systems, regardless of their sophistication, cannot be named as inventors or joint inventors on a patent application as they are not natural persons. In Thaler v. Vidal, 43 F.4th 1207 (Fed. Cir. 2022), the Federal Circuit held that an “inventor,” as the term is used in the Patent Act, could only refer to a human being, or a natural person.

The new guidance implements Executive Order 14179 signed by President Trump on January 23, 2025, entitled “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence,” which directs agencies to review and revise policies established under the prior administration to ensure they promote American leadership in AI.

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