The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) believes that artificial intelligence systems cannot be named as inventors, but humans can use artificial intelligence tools in the process of creating patented inventions, and if used must be disclosed. The agency released its latest guidance after a series of "listening" tours gathering public feedback.

The Guidelines note that although artificial intelligence systems and other "non-natural persons" cannot be named as inventors in patent applications, "the use of artificial intelligence systems by natural persons does not exclude natural persons from being eligible as inventors." People applying for patents must disclose whether they used artificial intelligence in their invention, just as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office requires all applicants to list all the important information needed to make a decision.

However, in order for a patent to be registered, the person using the AI ​​must have made a significant contribution to the conception of the invention. Just asking an AI system to create something and supervise it does not make them an inventor, the report said. The office said a person could not apply for a patent if he merely asked questions of an AI system or "recognized and appreciated" its output as a good invention.

"However, how a person constructs prompts for a specific problem to elicit a specific solution from an AI system can demonstrate significant contributions," the USPTO says. The office also says that "maintaining 'intellectual dominance' over an AI system does not in itself make a person an inventor" -- so simply overseeing or owning an AI that creates things doesn't mean you can patent them.

In 2020, the US Patent and Trademark Office rejected the application of researcher Stephen Thaler, ruling that only "natural persons" can apply for patents. Thaler lists DABUS, the artificial intelligence system he created, as the inventor in his patent application. A U.S. court upheld the patent office's decision. After Thaler filed another application involving AI-generated images, another federal court ruled that AI systems cannot be copyrighted.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the U.S. Copyright Office have launched a series of public consultations to develop new guidance for handling artificial intelligence in patent and copyright applications.