Cause For Inventor Optimism For AI-Based Patent Applications After Recent USPTO Memoranda?
Cause For Inventor Optimism For AI-Based Patent Applications After Recent USPTO Memoranda?
Publish Date: 2026-03-17 09:32:00
Source Domain: www.hunton.com
- The Supreme Court’s Alice decision in 2014 has made securing software-related patents difficult due to murky eligibility criteria and subjective USPTO application.
- The USPTO has issued multiple guidance updates to address challenges posed by the Alice decision, with a fluctuating inventor-hostile to inventor-friendly approach.
- Initially, AI-related claims were seen as a way to overcome Alice-based § 101 rejections, especially claims involving improvements to computing or technical fields.
- In July 2024, the USPTO issued new guidance that ended the token use of AI to bypass 101-based rejections, signaling a return to a more inventor-hostile stance.
- In August and December 2025, new memos from the USPTO indicated a shift back toward an inventor-friendly approach, citing practical improvements in AI training and model performance.
- These recent updates suggest a desire at the USPTO to increase grant rates for AI-based patent applications and signal a broader interpretation of what constitutes an “improvement to the functioning of a computer.”
