Brett J. Trout
Back in July, I noted that The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) had issued its 2024 Guidance Update on Patent Subject Matter Eligibility, Including on Artificial Intelligence. Among other items, the new guidance strongly suggested that when drafting patent claims that incorporate artificial intelligence, practitioners should take deva to incorporate the claimed technology into discrete, definable, and practical outputs that impose meaningful limits on the underlying abstract idea. The guidelines emphasized that simply applying artificial intelligence to a new field is not a patentable invention.
Comments to these new guidelines are coming in fast and furious. So much so that on September 17, 2024, the Patent Office extended the comment period on the new patent subject matter eligibility guidelines until October 16, 2024. The Patent Office extended the deadline to ensure that all stakeholders have a sufficient opportunity to submit comments on the guidance update. The Patent Office also stated that this deadline will not be extended again, so if you have comments to contribute to the guidelines, it is important that you submit them before October 16th.
