USPTO debuts 2025 AI strategy

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The agency aims to introduce automation to support patent and trademark application processing.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s new artificial intelligence strategy looks to bring AI technology into the operations that support expediting and supporting patent and trademark applications. 

Unveiled on Tuesday, the strategy unites five focus areas for the agency: advancing the development of intellectual property policies and promoting AI innovation and inclusion; building best-in-class AI capabilities through product and computational development; promoting the responsible use of AI internally; developing an AI expertise within the agency workforce; and engaging in interagency collaboration. 

The strategy says that the five areas are meant to compliment each other.

One notable detail included in the strategy was how USPTO plans to leverage its existing data and research programs to support how the agency might integrate and benefit from AI solutions, including its Open Data program.

In keeping with broader Biden administration AI policy, Derrick Brent, the acting under secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and acting director of the USPTO, wrote that while AI is an “important tool” for processing patent applications, it is one that requires oversight. 

“The USPTO will continue our work to advance safe, secure, and trustworthy AI; support responsible AI innovation; and integrate this advanced technology into our operations to better serve our stakeholders,” he wrote.

The USPTO has long been interested in leveraging AI solutions to improve patent and invention categorization in the agency’s internal databases. 

The strategy also covers USPTO’s role in the broader ecosystem of AI innovation.

“The USPTO must steward America’s IP system toward fostering the AI breakthroughs of tomorrow, while facilitating technical solutions to AI’s risks,” the strategy reads. “To that end, the USPTO must maintain an effective and predictable IP ecosystem that upholds IP protections, promotes robust competition, and enables U.S. leadership in AI and related markets.”

Editor's note: This article has been updated to correct USPTO's role in trademark applications.