USPTO Announces Artificial Intelligence Strategy
Summary
On January 14, 2025, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced a new Artificial Intelligence Strategy that sets forth the agency’s AI vision and mission. The AI Strategy is the USPTO’s first major effort to describe the challenges and goals that it faces as it works toward using the full potential of AI, both within agency operations and by encouraging its broader adoption. The Strategy defines the USPTO’s AI priorities across policy, technology, research and other domains in service of the USPTO’s 2022-2026 Strategic Plan.
The USPTO's AI Vision is to “unleash America’s potential through the adoption of AI to drive and scale U.S. innovation, inclusive capitalism, and global competitiveness.” The USPTO's AI Mission is “centered on fostering AI innovation, leveraging AI effectively and responsibly, and empowering the AI ecosystem with data and research.” To advance this vision and mission, the AI Strategy discusses the following five focus areas and associated actions.
Focus Area 1. Advance the development of IP policies that promote inclusive AI innovation and creativity.
Action 1.1: Ensure the USPTO anticipates and effectively responds to emerging AI-related IP policy issues.
Action 1.2: Study the interplay between AI innovation, economic activity and IP policy.
Action 1.3: Encourage inclusion in the AI innovation ecosystem.
Action 1.4: Contribute to broader IP policymaking in collaboration with Congress, interagency and international partners and the public.
Focus Area 2. Build best-in-class AI capabilities by investing in computational infrastructure, data resources and business-driven product development.
Action 2.1: Continuously advance the USPTO’s usage of computing and data resources to enable AI for increasingly complex use cases.
Action 2.2: Pursue mission-focused AI innovation, from prototyping to deployment.
Action 2.3: Closely align business areas, technology and end users to maximize stakeholder value.
Focus Area 3. Promote the responsible use of AI within the USPTO and across the broader innovation ecosystem.
Action 3.1: Maintain public trust in the USPTO’s adoption of AI through value-aligned product development, risk mitigation and transparent stakeholder communication.
Action 3.2: Monitor and address the use of AI in the broader innovation ecosystem to help shape IP and innovation.
Focus Area 4. Develop AI expertise within the USPTO’s workforce.
Action 4.1: Expand training to address AI-related subject matter in USPTO examination.
Action 4.2: Empower the USPTO workforce with AI expertise to support diverse organizational needs.
Focus Area 5. Collaborate with other U.S. government agencies, international partners and the public on shared AI priorities.
Action 5.1: Collaborate through the USPTO AI/ET Partnership and beyond to inform the USPTO’s next steps as to AI policy and technology.
Action 5.2: Promote interagency collaboration and identify new opportunities to collaborate with government agencies.
Action 5.3: Collaborate with international partners on AI matters impacting the global IP system.
