On April 11, 2024, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued Guidance on Use of Artificial-Intelligence-Based Tools (Guidance), which applies existing rules and policies to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in practice before the USPTO. The Guidance was issued pursuant to President Biden’s October 2023 “Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence,” which calls on government departments and agencies to enact and enforce protections against AI-related harms. Multiple agencies have now issued guidance under the executive order. The USPTO’s new Guidance does not introduce new regulations, but instead discusses risks associated with using AI for drafting documents, filing documents, and interacting with USPTO systems; provides suggestions for mitigating those risks; addresses implications for confidentiality and national security; and reminds applicants and practitioners that the USPTO’s standing duty of candor and good faith (including the duty to disclose known information material to patentability) covers actions taken with AI tools.
USPTO Issues Guidance on Use of AI-Based Tools
