The US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) issued additional guidance on the contribution of artificial intelligence (AI) in its January 2025 AI Strategy. Similarly, the US Copyright Office issued part two of its “Copyright and Artificial Intelligence” report, addressing the copyrightability of AI- or partially AI-made works. Both agencies appear to be walking a fine line by accepting that AI has become increasingly pervasive while maintaining human contribution requirements for protected works and inventions.
In its published strategy, the PTO states that its vision is to unleash “America’s potential through the adoption of AI.” The strategy describes five focus areas:
- Advancing the development of intellectual property policies that promote inclusive AI innovation and creativity.
- Building best-in-class AI capabilities by investing in computational infrastructure, data resources, and business-driven product development.
- Promoting the responsible use of AI within the PTO and across the broader innovation ecosystem.
- Developing AI expertise within the PTO’s workforce.
- Collaborating with other US government agencies, international partners, and the public on shared AI priorities.
The PTO stated that it is still evaluating the issue of AI-assisted inventions but reaffirmed its February 2024 guidance on inventorship for AI-assisted inventions. That guidance indicates that while AI-assisted inventions are not categorically unpatentable, the inventorship analysis should focus on human contributions.
Likewise, the Copyright Office discussed public comments regarding AI contributions to copyright, weighing the benefits of AI in assisting and empowering creators with disabilities against the harm to artists working to make a living. Ultimately the Copyright Office affirmed that AI, when used as a tool, can generate copyrightable works only where a human is able to determine the expressive elements contained in the work. The Copyright Office stated that creativity in the AI prompt alone is, at this state, insufficient to satisfy the human expressive input required to produce a copyrightable work.
