A Brief Summary of the USPTO Artificial Intelligence Strategy

Why AI Matters to the USPTO

Societal Impact and Risk AI is reshaping how we live, work, invent, and create. It holds promise for tackling difficult problems (e.g., early disease detection, more efficient chip design) but also poses risks, including threats to safety, rights, and trust if AI is deployed irresponsibly. The USPTO wants to ensure that AI’s benefits are realized while mitigating risks like bad actors locking up innovation or undermining public trust.

USPTO’s Role As “America’s Innovation Agency,” the USPTO operates at the intersection of law, policy, and technology. It grants patents, registers trademarks, and advises on intellectual property (IP). AI innovation is booming: AI-related patent applications more than doubled since 2002 and have risen 33% since 2018. Yet rapid progress in areas like generative AI raises new questions around IP law, patentability, inventorship, and more. At the same time, the USPTO itself can harness AI to improve how it handles over a million patent and trademark applications a year and how it makes its massive patent data available to researchers and innovators.

USPTO’s AI Vision and Mission

Vision

“Unleashing America’s potential through the adoption of AI to drive and scale U.S. innovation, inclusive capitalism, and global competitiveness.”

Mission

1. Foster AI innovation and commercialization in the domestic and global economy.
2. Leverage AI effectively and responsibly to empower USPTO staff and optimize operations.
3. Provide data and research that enable continued innovation and investment in AI.

To achieve this mission, the USPTO lays out five AI Focus Areas:

1. Advance IP policies that encourage inclusive innovation and creativity in AI.
2. Build best-in-class AI capabilities by investing in computational infrastructure, data resources, and user-driven product development.
3. Promote responsible use of AI across the agency and the broader innovation ecosystem.
4. Develop AI expertise within the USPTO workforce—from examiners and judges to IT staff.
5. Collaborate with U.S. agencies, international partners, and the public on shared AI priorities.

Focus Area 1: Advance IP Policies for Inclusive AI Innovation

Address Emerging AI-Related IP Policy Issues

Patents

Examine how AI shapes criteria like subject matter eligibility, obviousness, written description, and inventorship.

Adapt patent policies in response to AI’s evolving role in the inventive process.

Trademarks

Study how AI can help protect brand owners (e.g., anti-counterfeiting) but also how AI-generated content challenges traditional trademark law.

Copyright

Monitor and advise on litigation over AI-generated outputs and data ingestion.

Coordinate with the U.S. Copyright Office and Congress on potential legislation.

Other IP Protections

Examine AI’s interplay with trade secrets, licensing practices, and potential misappropriation concerns.

Study AI Innovation’s Economic Impact

Conduct economic and legal research on how IP policy drives (or impedes) AI innovation and commercialization. Publish and maintain datasets (e.g., the AI Patent Dataset) to empower external researchers.

Promote Inclusion in the AI Ecosystem

• PreK–12: Incorporate AI into youth STEM programs (e.g., Camp Invention).
• Post-Secondary: Expand AI and IP education at universities (especially HBCUs and Minority Serving Institutions).
• Broad Access for All: Advocate for policies that reduce barriers for small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) entering AI R&D.Use existing programs (e.g., Community Outreach Offices, Patent and Trademark Resource Centers) to spread AI and IP knowledge widely.

Contribute to Broader Policymaking

Work with courts, Congress, and other agencies (e.g., DOJ, FTC) to ensure robust, enforceable IP rights and fair marketplace competition. Collaborate internationally on AI and IP standards, infringement enforcement, and best practices.

Focus Area 2: Build Best-in-Class AI Capabilities

Invest in Infrastructure and Data

Ensure computing power (e.g., cloud resources, sandbox testbeds) can handle large-scale data processing for AI training and operations. Maintain high-quality, up-to-date datasets and a “best-in-class” Open Data program so that external innovators can benefit from USPTO data.

Pursue Mission-Focused AI Innovation

Evaluate AI tools that directly improve the agency’s patent/trademark examination, search, and user support (e.g., prior-art search, chat assistants). Deploy AI carefully, applying agile development, crowdsourcing, and user feedback to ensure solutions are reliable and beneficial.

Align Technology with End Users

Human-First Approach: Combine AI’s strengths with the USPTO’s expert workforce, while providing clarity on AI limitations. Integrate AI into examiner workflows, legal processes, and other business areas, seeking continuous improvements via user feedback loops.

Focus Area 3: Promote Responsible AI Use

Maintain Public Trust in the USPTO’s AI

• Adhere to the White House Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights and NIST’s AI Risk Management Framework.
• Uphold equity, privacy, civil liberties, and cybersecurity in all AI systems.
• Communicate openly about how the USPTO uses AI, including its benefits, limitations, and risk mitigation measures.

Oversee AI Use in the Broader Innovation Ecosystem

Legal Practice: Study how AI changes IP legal services, ensuring practitioners use AI ethically.

IP Awareness: Promote “responsible AI” best practices (e.g., legal data sourcing, content attribution, licensing compliance).

Focus Area 4: Develop AI Expertise in the USPTO Workforce

Expand Examination Training

Patent Examination: Equip examiners to evaluate increasingly complex AI-related applications, from basic to cutting-edge AI inventions.

Trademark Examination: Train attorneys on AI’s growing role in brand management, counterfeit detection, and NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) issues.

Recruiting: Attract new examiners with AI skills to keep pace with booming AI patent filings.

Empower the Broader Workforce

IT Staff: Provide specialized training in AI product development and responsible deployment.

Legal and Adjudicative Professionals: Offer deeper AI knowledge for judges and legal staff grappling with AI-intensive disputes.

Enterprise Resources: Launch an agency-wide AI resource portal with curated training. Continue with large-scale lecture series featuring top AI experts.

Focus Area 5: Collaborate with Agencies, Partners, and the Public

Engage with Stakeholders via the AI/ET Partnership

Strategic Feedback: Use listening sessions and roundtables to capture real-world insights from academia, industry, small businesses, inventors, and IP practitioners.

Academic Collaboration: Work with universities, research institutes, and technology transfer offices to ensure AI breakthroughs transition quickly from lab to market.

Strengthen Interagency Collaboration

Commerce Department: Coordinate with sister bureaus (like NIST) on AI standards and risk management.

Other Federal Agencies: Continue relationships with DOJ, FTC, FDA, NSF, and the U.S. Copyright Office, among others, to ensure alignment on competition, legislation, and innovation initiatives.

Work with Global Partners

International IP Offices: Discuss common AI-related IP challenges (e.g., patents on generative AI inventions) and share best practices.

Global Organizations: Collaborate via WIPO, G7, and other international forums to harmonize AI standards, rules, and enforcement on a global scale.