The agency published its latest guidance following a series of “listening” tours to gather public feedback.
A person simply asking an AI system to create something and overseeing it, the report says, does not make them an inventor.
The office says that a person who simply presents the problem to an AI system or “recognizes and appreciates” its output as a good invention can’t claim credit for that patent.
“However, a significant contribution could be shown by the way the person constructs the prompt in view of a specific problem to elicit a particular solution from the AI system,” the USPTO says.
In 2020, the USPTO ruled that only “natural humans” can apply for patents after it denied a petition from researcher Stephen Thaler.
A different federal court ruled that AI systems cannot be granted copyright, following a separate application by Thaler involving an AI-generated image.
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