US patent office says generative AI is equivalent to other tools in inventors' belts (www.engadget.com)

The US Patent and Trademark Office has issued guidance declaring generative AI tools “analogous” to other instruments—like lab equipment, software and research databases—used by human inventors, reiterating that AI cannot be named as an inventor under US law. Director John Squires’ notice (to be published in the Federal Register on Nov. 28) says AI systems may generate ideas or services but remain tools; when multiple people collaborate with AI assistance, traditional joint-inventorship rules apply and there is no separate evaluation track for AI-assisted inventions. This keeps the Federal Circuit’s ruling—that only natural persons can be inventors—intact while clarifying procedural expectations. For the AI/ML community, and sectors like biotech and pharma that increasingly rely on generative models, the update reduces uncertainty about patent filings: inventions developed with genAI can be patented so long as the claimed inventors are natural persons who contributed inventive concept. Practically, the guidance pushes organizations and patent counsel to document human contributions and decision-making around AI outputs, align inventor attribution with established legal tests, and maintain conventional patentability analyses (novelty, nonobviousness, enablement). The change is procedural and evidentiary rather than substantive—AI helps invent, but legal credit and responsibility remain human.