Human Conception not Artificial Intelligence
Following the landmark Thaler v. Vidal ruling and the Revised Inventorship Guidance issued in late 2025, the USPTO has clarified that AI systems—no matter how autonomous—cannot be named as inventors. The law recognizes AI as an instrument of innovation, analogous to a microscope or a CAD program, rather than a “natural person” capable of conception.
The Threshold: Human Conception not AI
To secure a patent, at least one human must have made a significant contribution to the invention’s conception. Under the current framework, “conception” is the “touchstone of inventorship.” It requires a definite and permanent idea of the complete and operative invention in a human mind.
What Does NOT Count as Human Inventorship:
- Simple Prompting: Asking an AI to “design a more efficient battery” is considered identifying a problem, not conceiving a solution.
- Ownership: Simply owning the AI or the data it was trained on does not grant you inventorship rights over its outputs.
- Verification: Merely recognizing that an AI output is “clever” or “useful” (without further modification) is generally insufficient.
How to Protect AI-Assisted Innovations
To ensure your IP stands up to USPTO scrutiny and future litigation, businesses should adopt three “Safe Harbor” practices:
- Document the Prompt Engineering: Maintain logs of the specific, technical constraints and iterative instructions provided to the AI. This demonstrates that a human was “steering” the creative process.
- Focus on Human Refinement: The strongest patent claims often come from what a human does after the AI provides an output—testing, modifying, and integrating that output into a practical application.
- Audit Your Disclosures: Ensure your patent counsel understands exactly where the AI’s work ended and the human’s work began. Misstating inventorship can lead to the total invalidation of a patent down the road.
Human Conception not AI
Artificial Intelligence can accelerate your speed-to-market, but it cannot hold legal rights. At Business Patent Law, PLLC, we help companies navigate these new boundaries.
Ask Us Anything…about Intellectual Property!
If you or your business are in the greater Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Lexington, or Louisville standard metropolitan statistical areas and have a topic or question you would like Business Patent Law, PLLC to address in the blog, please send us an email.
Business Patent Law, PLLC provides intellectual property and business counsel for businesses and companies. If you need assistance, please contact Business Patent Law, PLLC.
If you would like to stay up-to-date with news that impacts your business and intellectual property, sign up for Business Patent Law’s Monthly Mailer™ newsletter.