USPTO AI inventorship rules — what developers must document
Short answer: Name only human inventors; keep records showing you conceived the invention even if AI helped implement it.
Federal Circuit decisions including Thaler v. Vidal and subsequent USPTO guidance make one point clear: AI systems are not inventors. For developer teams shipping AI-assisted code, the practical question is how to preserve patent eligibility without hiding AI use.
Document the human chain of conception
- Problem statement written before first AI prompt
- Design alternatives considered without AI
- Commits where you override or refine model output
- Benchmarks justifying chosen parameters
Interactive Code Review workflow
Patent PreCheck’s paid tier walks your code section-by-section, prompting evidence-style edits that raise both patentability and human conception scores. You can return within 30 days to update after further development.
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