US Patent Office: AI is fine, but only humans can patent things

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has clarified that, like other intellectual property, only humans can receive official patent protections, stating, "patents function to incentivize and reward human ingenuity."

The guidance emphasizes that while corporations have legal personhood for some purposes, patents are exclusively for "natural humans."

While AI-assisted inventions are not automatically disqualified for patents, AI systems themselves cannot be inventors. At least one human must be named as the inventor, demonstrating a "significant contribution" to the invention.

The guidance outlines that merely recognizing a problem or appreciating AI output does not qualify as invention. However, constructing prompts to elicit specific solutions or making significant contributions to AI output may warrant inventorship.

Ownership or oversight of an AI system alone does not confer inventor status unless the individual contributes significantly to the invention's conception.

The USPTO clarifies that its guidance is based on existing statutes and precedents and does not attempt to define AI's nature or limit its use. If laws change to recognize AI as human for IP purposes, the guidance may be revised accordingly.