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Revised USPTO guidance on inventorship for AI-assisted inventions: a pro-innovation pivot away from Pannu factors

Mateo Aboy & Kathleen Liddell

Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice2026https://doi.org/10.1093/jiplp/jpag021article
ABDC B
Weight
0.50

Abstract

The US Patent and Trademark Office’s Revised Inventorship Guidance for AI-Assisted Inventions, issued on 28 November 2025 and effective immediately, fully rescinds the February 2024 guidance and replaces it with a streamlined, revised framework that (i) reaffirms that only natural persons can be inventors, (ii) treats AI systems as mere instruments analogous to other inventor support tools such as software and laboratory equipment, (iii) applies the traditional, fact-intensive US ‘conception’ test uniformly to all inventions without any separate or modified rules for AI assistance, (iv) eliminates Pannu-factor analysis when only one natural person is involved, retaining it solely for joint inventorship among multiple humans, (v) extends the same principles to design and plant patents and (vi) imposes strict natural-person commonality requirements for benefit and priority claims, thereby lowering perceived barriers to patenting AI-assisted inventions, signalling a pro-AI innovation policy shift in the US approach to AI regulation.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/jiplp/jpag021

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@article{mateo2026,
  title        = {{Revised USPTO guidance on inventorship for AI-assisted inventions: a pro-innovation pivot away from Pannu factors}},
  author       = {Mateo Aboy & Kathleen Liddell},
  journal      = {Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/jiplp/jpag021},
}

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Revised USPTO guidance on inventorship for AI-assisted inventions: a pro-innovation pivot away from Pannu factors

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

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