USPTO AI Inventorship: Notice of Public AI Inventorship Listening Session-East Coast, 20864-20866 [2023-07289]

Download as PDF ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with NOTICES1 20864 Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 67 / Friday, April 7, 2023 / Notices management area where the vessel is fishing. This permit would exempt participating vessels from the specified Federal regulations in Federal waters only. The applicant would be responsible for obtaining any necessary state authorizations. This EFP would not exempt the vessels from any requirements imposed by any state, the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, or any other applicable laws. Blue Planet Strategies and engineering teams representing the respective prototype would oversee initial deployments of on-demand gear. If necessary, participants would use a GoPro System, or other recording device, on deck to record the success and/or failures of some or all of the retrievals for review. Participants would record data on standardized data collection sheets (specific to the relevant sub-project). Blue Planet Strategies has proposed permit conditions and requirements similar to those included in other on-demand EFPs to minimize the chance of causing injury to right whales and mitigate the risk of gear conflicts, including: • All vessels would report all right whale sightings to NMFS via ne.rw.survey@noaa.gov or NOAA (866– 755–6622) or the U.S. Coast Guard (Channel 16); • All vessels would provide mandatory, weekly gear loss reports; • All vessels would retrieve ondemand vertical lines as quickly as possible to minimize time in the water column; • All vessels would adhere to current approach regulations—a 500-yard (457.2-meter or 1,500-foot) buffer zone created by a surfacing right whale—and must depart immediately at a safe and slow speed, in accordance with current regulations. Hauling any lobster gear would immediately cease, by either removal or resetting, to accommodate the regulation and be reinitiated only after it is reasonable to assume the whale has left the area; • All vessels would use smart buoy technology to provide alerts to the fishermen and the researcher staff within 2 hours of an unplanned release of a stowed line; • All vessels would use the Trap Tracker or an equivalent application to record positioning details, which would be available to Federal, state, and corresponding enforcement personnel, as well as other fishermen; • Vessels would operate within a 10knot speed limit when transiting Restricted Areas or when whales are observed; VerDate Sep<11>2014 19:11 Apr 06, 2023 Jkt 259001 • When fishing in ALWTRP Restricted Areas, on-demand vertical lines would be marked with unique markings in addition to ALWTRP regulations. The specific markings/color combinations would be agreed upon by the NMFS Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team Coordinator and provided to the Office of Law Enforcement; • When fishing in ALWTRP Restricted Areas, vessels would check real-time right whale sightings information (such as Right Whale Sightings Advisories and Whale ALERT) before setting any gear and avoid areas of high right whale abundance; • When fishing in ALWTRP Restricted Areas, all vessels would avoid operation between dusk and dawn; • The principal investigators would update the appropriate regional and state management partners on a regular basis to the level necessary to avoid miscommunication and maintain effective working relationships; • The principal investigators would regularly provide the approximate location and intensity of fishing in Restricted Areas where trawls will not have any surface markers and would proactively communicate within local ports with mobile and fixed gear fleets on fishing effort and location under the EFP, with particular focus on the Restricted Areas. Communications would be tailored to each region and port, and may include methods such as in-person meetings with fishermen in ports in advance of research activities to discuss gear locations, email or text contact with fishing vessels identified by the Vessel Monitoring System as fishing in the research area, Coast Guard notices to mariners, and any other methods that will assure local fishermen are informed about research activities in order to avoid any potential gear conflicts; • Participants would document and researchers would summarize all instances of gear conflicts/gear loss in the final report; and • A copy of the final report would be provided to NMFS within 6 months of the expiration of the EFP. If approved, the applicant may request minor modifications and extensions to the EFP throughout the year. EFP modifications and extensions may be granted without further notice if they are deemed essential to facilitate completion of the proposed research and have minimal impacts that do not change the scope or impact of the initially approved EFP request. Any fishing activity conducted outside the PO 00000 Frm 00017 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 scope of the exempted fishing activity would be prohibited. Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq. Dated: April 3, 2023. Jennifer M. Wallace, Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. [FR Doc. 2023–07262 Filed 4–6–23; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 3510–22–P DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE Patent and Trademark Office [Docket No.: PTO–P–2022–0045] USPTO AI Inventorship: Notice of Public AI Inventorship Listening Session—East Coast United States Patent and Trademark Office, Department of Commerce. ACTION: Notice of public listening session. AGENCY: The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) plays an important role in incentivizing and protecting innovation, including innovation enabled by artificial intelligence (AI), to ensure continued U.S. leadership in AI and other emerging technologies (ET). On February 14, 2023, the USPTO published a Federal Register Notice requesting comments regarding AI and Inventorship. The USPTO is announcing a public listening session on April 25, 2023, titled ‘‘AI Inventorship Listening Session.’’ The purpose of the listening session is to seek stakeholder input on the current state of AI technologies and inventorship issues that may arise in view of the advancement of such technologies, as set forth in the questions posed in the Federal Register Notice of February 14, 2023. DATES: The AI Inventorship Listening Session will be held on April 25, 2023, from 10:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. ET. Anyone seeking to speak at the listening session must register by 5 p.m. ET on April 20, 2023. Anyone seeking to attend, either virtually or in person, but not speak at the event must register by April 24, 2023. Seating is limited for in-person attendance. ADDRESSES: The public AI Inventorship Listening Session will take place virtually and in-person at the USPTO Headquarters, National Inventors Hall of Fame Museum, 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. All major entrances to the building are accessible to people with disabilities. Registration is required for both virtual and inSUMMARY: E:\FR\FM\07APN1.SGM 07APN1 Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 67 / Friday, April 7, 2023 / Notices person attendance. Information on registration is available at https:// www.uspto.gov/initiatives/artificialintelligence/ai-and-emergingtechnology-partnership-engagementand-events. Registrants must indicate whether they are registering as a listenonly attendee or as a speaker participant. More information about requests to participate as a speaker is provided below. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Aleksandr Kerzhner, Supervisory Patent Examiner, 571–270–1760 or Srilakshmi Kumar, Supervisory Patent Examiner, 571–272–7769. You can also send inquiries to AIPartnership@uspto.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Background In June 2022, the USPTO announced the formation of the AI/ET Partnership, which provides an opportunity to bring stakeholders together through a series of engagements to share ideas, feedback, experiences, and insights on the intersection of intellectual property and AI/ET. To build on the AI/ET Partnership efforts, in February 2023, the USPTO issued a Federal Register Notice titled ‘‘Request for Comments Regarding Artificial Intelligence and Inventorship,’’ 88 FR 9492 (February 14, 2023) (available at https://www.federal register.gov/documents/2023/02/14/ 2023-03066/request-for-commentsregarding-artificial-intelligence-andinventorship). The AI Inventorship Request for Comments (RFC) posed 11 questions for public comment on the current state of AI technologies and inventorship issues that may arise in view of the advancement of such technologies, especially as AI plays a greater role in the innovation process. As indicated by the AI Inventorship RFC, the USPTO will hold stakeholder engagement sessions that will be announced in the Federal Register and posted on the AI/ET Partnership web page at https://www.uspto.gov/ aipartnership. The USPTO is announcing the first of these stakeholder engagement sessions through this notice. ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with NOTICES1 II. Public Listening Session The USPTO will hold a public listening session on April 25, 2023 at the USPTO Headquarters, National Inventors Hall of Fame Museum, 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. The listening session will be held virtually and in person from 10:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. ET. For registration, please visit https://www.uspto.gov/initiatives/ artificial-intelligence/ai-and-emergingtechnology-partnership-engagement- VerDate Sep<11>2014 19:11 Apr 06, 2023 Jkt 259001 and-events. Registrants must indicate whether they are registering as a listenonly attendee or as a speaker participant. Requests to participate as a speaker must include: 1. The name of the person desiring to participate; 2. The organization(s) that person represents, if any; 3. Contact information (zip code, telephone number, and email address); 4. Information on the specific topic(s) or question(s) from the RFC of interest to the speaker (or their organization); and 5. Full text of comments to be articulated during the listening session (discussed further below). Speaking slots are limited, preference will be given to speakers based on the specific topic or question(s) provided in the request to participate. Selected speakers may be grouped by topic. Topics and speakers will be announced a few days prior to the event and listening session. Speakers may attend virtually or in person and are required to submit their remarks for the listening session in advance through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at https:// www.regulations.gov. We will inform each speaker in advance of their assigned time slot. Time slots will be at least three minutes but may be longer, depending on the number of speakers registered. USPTO personnel may reserve time to ask questions of particular speakers after the delivery of a speaker’s remarks. The listening session will be physically accessible to people with disabilities. Individuals requiring accommodation, such as sign language interpretation or other ancillary aids, should communicate their needs to the individuals listed under the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of this notice at least seven (7) business days prior to the listening session. III. Questions From the AI Inventorship RFC for Discussion at Listening Session The purpose of the listening session is to obtain public input from a broad group of stakeholders on the current state of AI technologies and inventorship issues that may arise in view of the advancement of such technologies, as set forth in the questions presented in the Federal Register Notice titled ‘‘Request for Comments Regarding Artificial Intelligence and Inventorship,’’ 88 FR 9492 (February 14, 2023) (available at https://www.federalregister.gov/ documents/2023/02/14/2023-03066/ request-for-comments-regardingartificial-intelligence-and-inventorship). PO 00000 Frm 00018 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 20865 We encourage interested speakers to address the questions posed in the AI Inventorship RFC and to submit research and data that explain their comments on these questions. Official written comments to the questions raised in the AI Inventorship RFC should be submitted as outlined in the AI Inventorship RFC. For convenience, a list of the AI Inventorship RFC questions is provided below in their entirety. 1. How is AI, including machine learning, currently being used in the invention creation process? Please provide specific examples. Are any of these contributions significant enough to rise to the level of a joint inventor if they were contributed by a human? 2. How does the use of an AI system in the invention creation process differ from the use of other technical tools? 3. If an AI system contributes to an invention at the same level as a human who would be considered a joint inventor, is the invention patentable under current patent laws? For example: a. Could 35 U.S.C. 101 and 115 be interpreted such that the Patent Act only requires the listing of the natural person(s) who invent(s), such that inventions with additional inventive contributions from an AI system can be patented as long as the AI system is not listed as an inventor? b. Does the current jurisprudence on inventorship and joint inventorship, including the requirement of conception, support the position that only the listing of the natural person(s) who invent(s) is required, such that inventions with additional inventive contributions from an AI system can be patented as long as the AI system is not listed as an inventor? c. Does the number of human inventors impact the answer to the questions above? 4. Do inventions in which an AI system contributed at the same level as a joint inventor raise any significant ownership issues? For example: a. Do ownership rights vest solely in the natural person(s) who invented or do those who create, train, maintain, or own the AI system have ownership rights as well? What about those whose information was used to train the AI system? b. Are there situations in which AIgenerated contributions are not owned by any entity and therefore part of the public domain? 5. Is there a need for the USPTO to expand its current guidance on inventorship to address situations in which AI significantly contributes to an invention? How should the significance of a contribution be assessed? E:\FR\FM\07APN1.SGM 07APN1 20866 Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 67 / Friday, April 7, 2023 / Notices 6. Should the USPTO require applicants to provide an explanation of contributions AI systems made to inventions claimed in patent applications? If so, how should that be implemented, and what level of contributions should be disclosed? Should contributions to inventions made by AI systems be treated differently from contributions made by other (i.e., non-AI) computer systems? 7. What additional steps, if any, should the USPTO take to further incentivize AI-enabled innovation (i.e., innovation in which machine learning or other computational techniques play a significant role in the invention creation process)? 8. What additional steps, if any, should the USPTO take to mitigate harms and risks from AI-enabled innovation? In what ways could the USPTO promote the best practices outlined in the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights 1 and the AI Risk Management Framework 2 within the innovation ecosystem? 9. What statutory changes, if any, should be considered as to U.S. inventorship law, and what consequences do you foresee for those statutory changes? For example: a. Should AI systems be made eligible to be listed as an inventor? Does allowing AI systems to be listed as an inventor promote and incentivize innovation? b. Should listing an inventor remain a requirement for a U.S. patent? 10. Are there any laws or practices in other countries that effectively address inventorship for inventions with significant contributions from AI systems? 11. The USPTO plans to continue engaging with stakeholders on the intersection of AI and intellectual property. What areas of focus (e.g., obviousness, disclosure, data protection) should the USPTO prioritize in future engagements? ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with NOTICES1 Katherine K. Vidal, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. [FR Doc. 2023–07289 Filed 4–6–23; 8:45 am] 1 See https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/ai-bill-ofrights/. 2 See https://www.nist.gov/itl/ai-riskmanagement-framework. 19:11 Apr 06, 2023 Procurement List; Dispute; Change Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled. ACTION: Notice of dispute and possible change. AGENCY: This action provides public notice of a dispute over a Procurement List product that is furnished by a nonprofit agency employing persons who are blind or have significant disabilities. SUMMARY: Comments must be received on or before: May 8, 2023. ADDRESSES: Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled, 355 E Street SW, Suite 325, Washington, DC 20024. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael R. Jurkowski, Telephone: (703) 785–6404, or email CMTEFedReg@ AbilityOne.gov. DATES: Jkt 259001 Industries, Corbin, KY Contracting Activity: Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) The Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled (operating as the U.S. AbilityOne Commission) advises that on March 8, 2023, a dispute over the ACU Patrol Cap, OCP 2015 was remanded to the Commission by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. After an initial review of relevant information, this dispute was referred to the Deciding Official for adjudication in accordance with the JavitsWagner-O’Day Act (41 U.S.C. 8501–8506), the Commission’s regulations at 41 CFR chapter 51, and Commission policies and procedures. Because adjudication could require an amendment to the Procurement List, this notice provides interested parties the opportunity to provide comments to the Commission about the dispute generally and serves as the Commission’s public notice on potential Procurement List changes. The Commission requests all comments be sent no later than May 8, 2023, to Cassandra Assefa, Regulatory and Policy Attorney, Office of General Counsel, U.S. AbilityOne Commission; email: disputes@abilityone.gov. Michael R. Jurkowski, Acting Director, Business Operations. [FR Doc. 2023–07340 Filed 4–6–23; 8:45 am] SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: BILLING CODE 6353–01–P Notice If the Committee determines during the adjudication process that appropriate resolution to this dispute is an amendment to this Procurement List product, the Committee will publish a Final Notice in the Federal Register reflecting the change. Regulatory Flexibility Act Certification I certify that the following action will not have a significant impact on any small entities. The major factors considered for this certification were: 1. The action did not result in any additional reporting, recordkeeping, or other compliance requirements for small entities other than the nonprofit agencies furnishing the services to the Government. 2. The action did result in authorizing nonprofit agencies to furnish the products to the Government. 3. There were no known regulatory alternatives which would have accomplished the objectives of the Javits-Wagner-O’Day Act (41 U.S.C. 8501–8506) in connection with the products added to the Procurement List. End of Certification The following Procurement List product(s) have been referred to the Commission for dispute resolution. BILLING CODE 3510–16–P VerDate Sep<11>2014 COMMITTEE FOR PURCHASE FROM PEOPLE WHO ARE BLIND OR SEVERELY DISABLED Product(s) ACU Patrol Cap, OCP 2015, NSN 8415–01– 630–8905 (+13 additional sizes) NPA: Southeastern Kentucky Rehabilitation PO 00000 Frm 00019 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 COMMITTEE FOR PURCHASE FROM PEOPLE WHO ARE BLIND OR SEVERELY DISABLED Procurement List; Proposed Additions and Deletions Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled. ACTION: Proposed additions to and deletions from the Procurement List. AGENCY: The Committee is proposing to add a service to the Procurement List that will be furnished by nonprofit agencies employing persons who are blind or have other severe disabilities and deletes product(s) and service(s) previously furnished by such agencies. DATES: Comments must be received on or before: May 7, 2023. ADDRESSES: Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled, 355 E Street SW, Suite 325, Washington, DC 20024. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For further information or to submit comments contact: Michael R. Jurkowski, Telephone: (703) 785–6404, or email CMTEFedReg@AbilityOne.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice is published pursuant to 41 U.S.C. 8503 (a)(2) and 41 CFR 51–2.3. Its purpose is to provide interested persons an opportunity to submit comments on the proposed actions. SUMMARY: E:\FR\FM\07APN1.SGM 07APN1

Agencies

[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 67 (Friday, April 7, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20864-20866]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-07289]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Patent and Trademark Office

[Docket No.: PTO-P-2022-0045]


USPTO AI Inventorship: Notice of Public AI Inventorship Listening 
Session--East Coast

AGENCY: United States Patent and Trademark Office, Department of 
Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of public listening session.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) plays an 
important role in incentivizing and protecting innovation, including 
innovation enabled by artificial intelligence (AI), to ensure continued 
U.S. leadership in AI and other emerging technologies (ET). On February 
14, 2023, the USPTO published a Federal Register Notice requesting 
comments regarding AI and Inventorship. The USPTO is announcing a 
public listening session on April 25, 2023, titled ``AI Inventorship 
Listening Session.'' The purpose of the listening session is to seek 
stakeholder input on the current state of AI technologies and 
inventorship issues that may arise in view of the advancement of such 
technologies, as set forth in the questions posed in the Federal 
Register Notice of February 14, 2023.

DATES: The AI Inventorship Listening Session will be held on April 25, 
2023, from 10:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. ET. Anyone seeking to speak at the 
listening session must register by 5 p.m. ET on April 20, 2023. Anyone 
seeking to attend, either virtually or in person, but not speak at the 
event must register by April 24, 2023. Seating is limited for in-person 
attendance.

ADDRESSES: The public AI Inventorship Listening Session will take place 
virtually and in-person at the USPTO Headquarters, National Inventors 
Hall of Fame Museum, 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. All major 
entrances to the building are accessible to people with disabilities. 
Registration is required for both virtual and in-

[[Page 20865]]

person attendance. Information on registration is available at https://www.uspto.gov/initiatives/artificial-intelligence/ai-and-emerging-technology-partnership-engagement-and-events. Registrants must indicate 
whether they are registering as a listen-only attendee or as a speaker 
participant. More information about requests to participate as a 
speaker is provided below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Aleksandr Kerzhner, Supervisory Patent 
Examiner, 571-270-1760 or Srilakshmi Kumar, Supervisory Patent 
Examiner, 571-272-7769. You can also send inquiries to 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background

    In June 2022, the USPTO announced the formation of the AI/ET 
Partnership, which provides an opportunity to bring stakeholders 
together through a series of engagements to share ideas, feedback, 
experiences, and insights on the intersection of intellectual property 
and AI/ET. To build on the AI/ET Partnership efforts, in February 2023, 
the USPTO issued a Federal Register Notice titled ``Request for 
Comments Regarding Artificial Intelligence and Inventorship,'' 88 FR 
9492 (February 14, 2023) (available at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/02/14/2023-03066/request-for-comments-regarding-artificial-intelligence-and-inventorship). The AI Inventorship Request 
for Comments (RFC) posed 11 questions for public comment on the current 
state of AI technologies and inventorship issues that may arise in view 
of the advancement of such technologies, especially as AI plays a 
greater role in the innovation process. As indicated by the AI 
Inventorship RFC, the USPTO will hold stakeholder engagement sessions 
that will be announced in the Federal Register and posted on the AI/ET 
Partnership web page at https://www.uspto.gov/aipartnership. The USPTO 
is announcing the first of these stakeholder engagement sessions 
through this notice.

II. Public Listening Session

    The USPTO will hold a public listening session on April 25, 2023 at 
the USPTO Headquarters, National Inventors Hall of Fame Museum, 600 
Dulany Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. The listening session will be held 
virtually and in person from 10:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. ET. For 
registration, please visit https://www.uspto.gov/initiatives/artificial-intelligence/ai-and-emerging-technology-partnership-engagement-and-events. Registrants must indicate whether they are 
registering as a listen-only attendee or as a speaker participant.
    Requests to participate as a speaker must include:
    1. The name of the person desiring to participate;
    2. The organization(s) that person represents, if any;
    3. Contact information (zip code, telephone number, and email 
address);
    4. Information on the specific topic(s) or question(s) from the RFC 
of interest to the speaker (or their organization); and
    5. Full text of comments to be articulated during the listening 
session (discussed further below).
    Speaking slots are limited, preference will be given to speakers 
based on the specific topic or question(s) provided in the request to 
participate. Selected speakers may be grouped by topic. Topics and 
speakers will be announced a few days prior to the event and listening 
session. Speakers may attend virtually or in person and are required to 
submit their remarks for the listening session in advance through the 
Federal eRulemaking Portal at https://www.regulations.gov. We will 
inform each speaker in advance of their assigned time slot. Time slots 
will be at least three minutes but may be longer, depending on the 
number of speakers registered. USPTO personnel may reserve time to ask 
questions of particular speakers after the delivery of a speaker's 
remarks.
    The listening session will be physically accessible to people with 
disabilities. Individuals requiring accommodation, such as sign 
language interpretation or other ancillary aids, should communicate 
their needs to the individuals listed under the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION 
CONTACT section of this notice at least seven (7) business days prior 
to the listening session.

III. Questions From the AI Inventorship RFC for Discussion at Listening 
Session

    The purpose of the listening session is to obtain public input from 
a broad group of stakeholders on the current state of AI technologies 
and inventorship issues that may arise in view of the advancement of 
such technologies, as set forth in the questions presented in the 
Federal Register Notice titled ``Request for Comments Regarding 
Artificial Intelligence and Inventorship,'' 88 FR 9492 (February 14, 
2023) (available at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/02/14/2023-03066/request-for-comments-regarding-artificial-intelligence-and-inventorship).
    We encourage interested speakers to address the questions posed in 
the AI Inventorship RFC and to submit research and data that explain 
their comments on these questions. Official written comments to the 
questions raised in the AI Inventorship RFC should be submitted as 
outlined in the AI Inventorship RFC. For convenience, a list of the AI 
Inventorship RFC questions is provided below in their entirety.
    1. How is AI, including machine learning, currently being used in 
the invention creation process? Please provide specific examples. Are 
any of these contributions significant enough to rise to the level of a 
joint inventor if they were contributed by a human?
    2. How does the use of an AI system in the invention creation 
process differ from the use of other technical tools?
    3. If an AI system contributes to an invention at the same level as 
a human who would be considered a joint inventor, is the invention 
patentable under current patent laws? For example:
    a. Could 35 U.S.C. 101 and 115 be interpreted such that the Patent 
Act only requires the listing of the natural person(s) who invent(s), 
such that inventions with additional inventive contributions from an AI 
system can be patented as long as the AI system is not listed as an 
inventor?
    b. Does the current jurisprudence on inventorship and joint 
inventorship, including the requirement of conception, support the 
position that only the listing of the natural person(s) who invent(s) 
is required, such that inventions with additional inventive 
contributions from an AI system can be patented as long as the AI 
system is not listed as an inventor?
    c. Does the number of human inventors impact the answer to the 
questions above?
    4. Do inventions in which an AI system contributed at the same 
level as a joint inventor raise any significant ownership issues? For 
example:
    a. Do ownership rights vest solely in the natural person(s) who 
invented or do those who create, train, maintain, or own the AI system 
have ownership rights as well? What about those whose information was 
used to train the AI system?
    b. Are there situations in which AI-generated contributions are not 
owned by any entity and therefore part of the public domain?
    5. Is there a need for the USPTO to expand its current guidance on 
inventorship to address situations in which AI significantly 
contributes to an invention? How should the significance of a 
contribution be assessed?

[[Page 20866]]

    6. Should the USPTO require applicants to provide an explanation of 
contributions AI systems made to inventions claimed in patent 
applications? If so, how should that be implemented, and what level of 
contributions should be disclosed? Should contributions to inventions 
made by AI systems be treated differently from contributions made by 
other (i.e., non-AI) computer systems?
    7. What additional steps, if any, should the USPTO take to further 
incentivize AI-enabled innovation (i.e., innovation in which machine 
learning or other computational techniques play a significant role in 
the invention creation process)?
    8. What additional steps, if any, should the USPTO take to mitigate 
harms and risks from AI-enabled innovation? In what ways could the 
USPTO promote the best practices outlined in the Blueprint for an AI 
Bill of Rights \1\ and the AI Risk Management Framework \2\ within the 
innovation ecosystem?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \1\ See https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/ai-bill-of-rights/.
    \2\ See https://www.nist.gov/itl/ai-risk-management-framework.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    9. What statutory changes, if any, should be considered as to U.S. 
inventorship law, and what consequences do you foresee for those 
statutory changes? For example:
    a. Should AI systems be made eligible to be listed as an inventor? 
Does allowing AI systems to be listed as an inventor promote and 
incentivize innovation?
    b. Should listing an inventor remain a requirement for a U.S. 
patent?
    10. Are there any laws or practices in other countries that 
effectively address inventorship for inventions with significant 
contributions from AI systems?
    11. The USPTO plans to continue engaging with stakeholders on the 
intersection of AI and intellectual property. What areas of focus 
(e.g., obviousness, disclosure, data protection) should the USPTO 
prioritize in future engagements?

Katherine K. Vidal,
Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of 
the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
[FR Doc. 2023-07289 Filed 4-6-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-16-P
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