IP Law Daily, USPTO NEWS: Director Squires points to AI as patent subject and examiner tool in speech, (Nov 4, 2025)

By Steven Melendez

The USPTO chief, five weeks into his tenure, spoke of the importance of “making sure the door to the patent office is wide open to transformative technologies”.

In a speech at the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) annual meeting, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director John A. Squires spoke of the promise of new technologies like distributed ledgers (DL) and artificial intelligence (AI) and clear guidance for patent eligibility. “If there is any one thing I am going to accomplish in my tenure, it’s this—making sure the door to the patent office is wide open to transformative technologies,” Squires said.

Squires spoke of distributed ledger technology, like the blockchains initially developed for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin—and an invention he championed at Goldman Sachs, where he served as chief IP counsel—and AI as having problem-solving power similar to the automobile. Cars, he said, eliminated in something like a decade the seemingly intractable problem of horse manure on urban streets.

And, he said, these new technologies and others require a clear framework around patent eligibility. “Eligibility simply can’t be relegated to the eyes of the beholder,” he said. “And it will not be on my watch.”

Eligibility considerations. Squires spoke of “three pillars” to the question of patent eligibility that can address today’s new technologies and those of the future, starting with the definition of “process” discussing “specifically new uses of known technologies,” which he traces back to the Patent Act of 1793.

A second pillar, he said, is the Federal Circuit decision in Enfish v. Microsoft, which helped define patent eligibility for computer software and the data structures used by coders to organize information. And AI and distributed ledger technology can fall within the framework of Enfish when properly claimed in a patent, he suggested.

The third pillar, he said, is “something more”—the transformative “artifacts of re-engineering that revolutionary technologies provide.” An example, he said, is Claim 5 from Samuel Morse’s famous telegraph patent of the 1800s, which claimed the dots and dashes of Morse code. That, he said, was found patent eligible, while a broader claim simply describing electromagnetic phenomena was not. “And 171 years later, Alice and Mayo cannot be reasonably read as overruling it,” he said.

Those considerations helped inspire Squires’ choice of first patents to sign, he said, including one dealing with a DL/crypto business method and one dealing with medical diagnostic technology.

Efficiency gains. Squires said that when the Trump administration took office on January 20, the USPTO presided over a record 837,928 unexamined applications, compared to a backlog of 576,103 in 2020, which he called “an absolute dumpster fire.” To address the issue, Squires said he has “1,100 new examiner hires underway”—even while executing an agency reduction in force—and instituted “new incentives and bonuses” while cutting employee travel.

The number of unexamined applications today stands at 788,229, according to a report from IP Watchdog.

The USPTO also recently launched a Streamlined Claim Set Pilot Program, which offers accelerated treatment for certain simpler patents, and an AI-assisted Automated Search Pilot (ASAP), which uses artificial intelligence to quickly find relevant patent prior art.

“With AI, there’s no excuse for missing prior art,” he said. “Machines can surface it faster, broader, and smarter than ever before.”

The Trademarks Register Protection Office also removed about 61,000 “invalid applications and registrations” thanks to help from AI, Squires said.

With the USPTO remaining open during the government shutdown thanks to reserves and its user fee-based funding structure, Squires vowed to continue to address AI both as a subject for patent protection and a tool for the agency to harness.

“In no way, shape, or form can we have a discussion about the future of intellectual property without AI,” he said. “In no way, shape, or form can America have any credibility—domestically or on the world stage—if we don’t meet the moment.”

MainStory: TopStory AINews Patent TechnologyInternet USPTO GCNNews