Karen Gover

On July 17, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a 2024 Guidance Update on patent subject matter eligibility (SME), including on artificial intelligence (AI). This update complements the guidance that the USPTO issued in February 2024 regarding patent inventorship and AI-assisted inventions. Both documents were created at the direction of Executive Order 14110 on the “Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence” (October 30, 2023). The order directs the USPTO to “promote innovation and clarify issues” related to AI and intellectual property.

In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court decided four intellectual property cases. The cases touched all of the major fields of intellectual property—two cases interpreted the federal trademark act (Jack Daniel’s and Abitron), one case involved patent enablement (Amgen), and one case explicated the federal copyright statutes (Goldsmith). The decisions were split along party lines, with two cases finding in favor of intellectual property owners (Jack Daniel’s and Goldsmith) and two cases in favor of the accused infringers (Abitron and Amgen).