Earlier this month, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) withdrew its artificial intelligence (AI) strategy previously issued on January 14, 2025 and removed a report that stressed the safe and responsible development of the technology from its website. To see our prior article on the previous USPTO strategy, click here.

Specifically, the website for the USPTO report, titled "Artificial Intelligence Strategy," now displays the following message:

The USPTO is reviewing its AI Strategy and, when finished, will post a plan that reflects the AI policies of the White House, Department of Commerce, and USPTO. We look forward to continuing to deliver for the U.S. innovation economy in this critical area.

In addition, the USPTO appears to have updated the USPTO’s priorities in connection with AI and has provided the following statement:

One of the agency's top priorities is to ensure that the United States maintains its leadership in innovation, especially in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).

The withdrawal of its AI strategy is one of many changes by the USPTO since President Trump took office and issued executive orders affecting federal agencies, including return-to-office mandates that the USPTO is now negotiating with the Trump administration.

Important Considerations:

The withdrawal of the previous AI guidance by the USPTO in such an abrupt manner is noteworthy because it creates a void with respect to current AI practice, even though we are in the early stages of AI-related inventions. Nevertheless, companies that believe they will be strongly affected by AI developments and AI-related patents should consider developing their own AI strategy and/or collaborating with other companies or organizations in the form of working groups to create a unified strategy.

Irah Donner is a partner in Manatt, Phelps and Phillip’s Intellectual Property Protection and Enforcement practice and is the author of Patent Prosecution: Law, Practice, and Procedure, 2024 Edition, and Constructing and Deconstructing Patents (2d Edition 2016).