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All 167 entries since 2021, on the patent, copyright, trade secret and regulatory questions that come up when a company builds with artificial intelligence. Each one says what happened and what it changes for a company holding or seeking patents. Search by keyword, filter by topic, jurisdiction or year, or start from one of the questions below.
Start from a question
- Will our machine learning claims survive an eligibility challenge?
- How much does the specification have to disclose about the model?
- Does releasing a model, a paper or a product put it in the prior art?
- Who is the inventor when engineers use artificial intelligence?
- Should we patent it, keep it secret, or release the weights?
- What is the exposure from training on copyrighted material?
- What are OpenAI, Google, Nvidia and the others claiming?
- How do I run, staff and defend an in-house patent program?
- What will prosecution cost, and how long will it take?
- What do the AI statutes and executive orders require us to document?
- What happens when a patent is asserted or challenged?
2026
2026-10-19In-HouseThe invention record that survives a priority fight is the native file with its metadata, not the copy the inventor exported
2026-10-15FilingsOpenAI claims the control in the prompt box that sets how many tokens the model may spend on an answer, and the Office allowed it before it published
2026-10-15FilingsGoogle claims the procedure for sizing a model's depth and width to a compute budget, filed five days before its authors posted the paper
2026-10-08FilingsOpenAI claims loading a narrative memory of the user, written offline from past chats, into the context window before the first prompt
2026-10-08FilingsGoogle claims training an agent with a second model that grades each tool call for whether it advances the goal, on a July 2023 priority date
2026-10-06In-HouseThe patent budget is defended at the abandonment review, not at the filing decision
2026-10-01Trade SecretsA system prompt is a trade secret only for as long as the model will not repeat it
2026-10-01Fed. Cir.A claim that covers something that cannot work is definite, and it is invalid for lack of enablement
2026-09-30Fed. Cir.A court that refuses fees after an eligibility loss must explain why the suit was reasonable despite the warnings on the record
2026-09-28In-HouseInvention disclosures come out of the roadmap review, not out of a form on the intranet
2026-09-24FilingsWaymo claims prompting a generative model with sensor data and moving the car on its answer
2026-09-24FilingsNvidia claims the assistant that stores what the user told it and applies it in a later conversation, on a 2022 priority date
2026-09-21CostsAppeal outcomes in the software technology center run sixteen points better than in the business method technology center
2026-09-21Fed. Cir.An inventive concept the claim does not require cannot carry the claim past step two
2026-09-18US PolicyCalifornia moves toward placing independent auditors inside frontier artificial intelligence laboratories
2026-09-17FilingsOpenAI's prompt caching application claims the hash that routes a request to the server already holding its cache
2026-09-14Fed. Cir.A private sale is not a public disclosure, so it does not switch on the inventor grace period shield
2026-09-10FilingsNvidia seeks two-element coverage of the step that tells an agent which data source to use
2026-09-09ResearchA randomized trial finds artificial intelligence drafting help improves patent drafts, and that only experienced lawyers keep the improvement
2026-09-02CostsCongress carries United States Patent and Trademark Office fee setting authority only to the end of the year
2026-07-23Fed. Cir.A physically separable interface limitation carried one claim past the abstract idea step
2026-07-14LegislationPatent Eligibility Restoration Act gets its first full-committee hearing, and stalls there
2026-07-14UKUK examiners now search and examine software claims by the features that contribute technical character
2026-07-14ResearchWIPO counts 37,808 generative artificial intelligence patent families published in 2025, nearly triple 2023
2026-06-04Fed. Cir.A jury deciding step two must be told the abstract idea, and claims that change when a device transmits are eligible
2026-05-18Supreme CourtSupreme Court declines USAA's challenge to the rule that computer-implemented claims must improve the computer
2026-05-13EU PolicyEuropean Union delays its high-risk artificial intelligence obligations by sixteen months
2026-04-16CostsUSPTO extends its artificial intelligence prior art pilot, now free, to applications filed through June 1
2026-04-14Fed. Cir.Selling a device that runs secret code bars a patent on what the code does, and the code itself proves it
2026-03-11Fed. Cir.Comparing program behavior against a combined model is abstract, and only an unconventional model can save the claim
2026-03-11PTABDirector adds American manufacturing and small-business status to the inter partes review institution decision
2026-03-04JapanJapan's Supreme Court refuses the DABUS appeal, leaving a natural person as the only possible inventor
2026-03-02Supreme CourtSupreme Court leaves in place the rule that a work generated by a machine alone has no author
2026-02-11UKThe UK Supreme Court drops Aerotel and moves the neural network patent fight to inventive step
2025
2025-12-05USPTOThe examination manual now lists improving how a machine learning model trains as an improvement to technology
2025-11-28USPTOUSPTO rescinds the 2024 inventorship guidance and treats artificial intelligence as a tool only
2025-10-17PTABThe USPTO Director takes over inter partes review institution and proposes barring review where a court trial will come first
2025-09-26PTABAppeals Review Panel finds machine learning claims eligible on efficiency-based technical improvements
2025-09-25CopyrightA federal court preliminarily approves Anthropic's $1.5 billion settlement over pirated training books, about $3,000 a work
2025-09-24Trade SecretsxAI sues OpenAI over engineers who left with training code, inference code and data center know-how
2025-08-11Fed. Cir.A claim reciting a motor that physically moves a dumbbell's weight selector is a machine, not an abstract idea
2025-08-04USPTODirector's memorandum narrows the mental-process rejection and imposes an evidence standard
2025-08-02EU PolicyGeneral-purpose model providers in the European Union must now publish a summary of their training content
2025-07-23US PolicyThe White House artificial intelligence plan says nothing about patents and pushes open weights and full-stack exports
2025-07-02EPOA product on the market is prior art at the EPO even if no one could analyse or reproduce it
2025-06-25CopyrightTwo federal judges find training on books fair use on their records, and leave pirated libraries and market dilution open
2025-06-18PTABA patent in force almost eight years carries settled expectations that can defeat an inter partes review petition
2025-06-18EPOThe EPO must read every claim with the description and drawings, not only when the claim is unclear
2025-05-21Fed. Cir.An expert may not read a per-unit rate into lump-sum licenses whose text says the licensees never agreed to it
2025-05-09CopyrightCopyright Office says fair training turns on the works, their source, the purpose and the controls on outputs
2025-05-01LegislationReintroduced eligibility bill would rescue a mathematical formula that cannot practically run without a machine
2025-03-26PTABThe Director now decides discretionary denial first, and how long the claims have been in force can count against review
2025-03-18CopyrightA machine cannot be an author under the Copyright Act, though a human who uses one can be
2025-02-13Fed. Cir.A product defined by measured properties that the specification ties to its structure is not an abstract idea
2025-02-11CopyrightTraining a competing search tool on copied headnotes is not fair use, and the market for training data counts
2025-01-30JapanJapan's Intellectual Property High Court holds that only a natural person can be named as inventor
2025-01-29CopyrightCopyright Office concludes that prompts alone do not make the user the author of what a model generates
2025-01-23US PolicyNew executive order puts the Office's artificial intelligence inventorship and eligibility guidance under review
2025-01-20Trade SecretsDeepSeek publishes its reasoning-model recipe and shows that a model's capability can be copied through its outputs
2025-01-14USPTOUSPTO strategy confirms examiners search by machine similarity and promises guidance beyond eligibility
2024
2024-12-31CNIPACNIPA issues trial guidelines for artificial intelligence applications, from inventorship to disclosure of the model
2024-12-04CostsUSPTO withdraws the terminal disclaimer proposal that would have tied a family's enforceability to its weakest claim
2024-11-20CostsFinal fee rule adds surcharges for late continuations and large reference lists, effective January 19, 2025
2024-09-29US PolicyCalifornia vetoes the frontier model safety bill and enacts a training data disclosure requirement for 2026
2024-09-12Trade SecretsOpenAI ships a reasoning model and hides its chain of thought, naming competitive advantage as a reason
2024-09-09Fed. Cir.Recording two streams in parallel and sending only the low-quality one is a technological solution, not an abstract idea
2024-09-03Fed. Cir.Reordering a program guide by viewing history is targeted advertising, abstract unless the claim says how
2024-08-20Trade SecretsA Texas federal court sets aside the FTC ban on worker non-competes nationwide before it takes effect
2024-08-12Trade SecretsSelling the output of a secret process for more than a year forfeits the patent on the process under the America Invents Act
2024-08-06Fed. Cir.Matching a captured image to stored features is abstract, and the patentee must argue each claim or lose it as represented
2024-08-01EU PolicyThe Artificial Intelligence Act is in force, and general-purpose model documentation duties start on 2 August 2025
2024-07-30LegislationRESTORE Patent Rights Act would give a winning patent owner a presumption of permanent injunction
2024-07-23IndustryMeta's Llama 3 paper puts a frontier training recipe into the prior art, down to the data mix and the annealing schedule
2024-07-18Fed. Cir.Automating a background investigation step by step is still the abstract idea of performing a background check
2024-07-17USPTOThree new eligibility examples show the claims the Office will allow on network training, speech separation and treatment
2024-07-17USPTOUSPTO tells examiners to ask whether a claim recites an abstract idea or merely involves one, and to look for the improvement
2024-07-03ResearchWIPO counts 54,000 generative artificial intelligence patent families, with China filing six times the United States total
2024-06-21Fed. Cir.A claim that gates a bet on the user's location is abstract, and fifteen lines on GPS cannot make the gate inventive
2024-06-11GermanyGermany's highest civil court holds that only a natural person is an inventor, and that steering the machine suffices
2024-05-17US PolicyColorado requires developers of high-risk artificial intelligence to document their systems for deployers from 2026
2024-05-16JapanTokyo District Court holds that only a natural person can be an inventor under Japan's Patent Act
2024-05-08IndustryAlphaFold 3 publishes its architecture and pseudocode but keeps code and weights behind a non-commercial server
2024-04-30USPTOUSPTO asks whether machine-generated disclosures are prior art and whether the skilled person is presumed to use models
2024-04-11USPTOUSPTO lets practitioners use artificial intelligence tools and holds the signer to a full reasonable inquiry
2024-04-04Fed. Cir.Creating views on the fly from stored data is abstract when the claim never says how the views are created
2024-03-27Fed. Cir.Writing software in the United States is not making the claimed medium, so it cannot carry foreign use into the royalty
2024-03-13US PolicyUtah requires generative artificial intelligence to say so when asked and opens a learning laboratory for testing
2024-02-13USPTOUSPTO allows patents on artificial-intelligence-assisted inventions where a person contributed significantly to each claim
2024-01-30FilingsOne of OpenAI's first two patents claims inserting text between a prefix and a suffix and retraining on labeled output
2024-01-20CNIPAChina treats a machine learning algorithm tied to hardware performance or to natural-law data as technical
2024-01-17CostsThe non-DOCX surcharge takes effect, and the DOCX file the applicant uploads is the application of record
2023
2023-12-27CopyrightThe New York Times sues Microsoft and OpenAI and files pages of GPT-4 output reciting its articles verbatim
2023-12-08EU PolicyThe Artificial Intelligence Act deal requires general-purpose model providers to publish summaries of training content
2023-11-27ChinaBeijing Internet Court holds a prompted Stable Diffusion image is a copyrighted work and the prompter is its author
2023-11-21UKA trained artificial neural network is not a program for a computer under the United Kingdom exclusion
2023-10-30US PolicyThe artificial intelligence Executive Order orders inventorship guidance in 120 days and invites eligibility guidance in 270
2023-09-20Fed. Cir.A roadmap that works every time is still trial and error and does not enable a functional genus claim
2023-09-07In-HouseMicrosoft's Copilot Copyright Commitment indemnifies commercial customers for copyright claims over output, not patent claims
2023-08-28Fed. Cir.Double patenting is measured against the expiration date after patent term adjustment
2023-08-02Fed. Cir.Choosing a compression technique from the data's characteristics is abstract when the claim never says how
2023-07-18IndustryMeta releases Llama 2 weights for commercial use, except to companies over 700 million monthly users at release
2023-07-14Fed. Cir.Matching users by their answers to questions is abstract, and a plea for claim construction does not delay the ruling
2023-06-22LegislationPatent Eligibility Restoration Act would make a process eligible when it cannot practically be performed without a machine
2023-06-14EU PolicyEuropean Parliament's position on the Artificial Intelligence Act would require public summaries of copyrighted training data
2023-05-18Supreme CourtA functional genus claim must be enabled across its full scope, and a research plan is not enablement
2023-05-15IndiaDelhi High Court holds a two-cookie authentication method is not a computer programme per se under section 3(k)
2023-05-02Fed. Cir.One alternative in one claim is not a significant contribution when measured against the whole invention
2023-04-12Fed. Cir.Sending an image filter to users whose location matches a rule is an abstract idea
2023-03-23EPOEnlarged Board lets later evidence prove a technical effect the application as filed already embodied
2023-03-21Trade SecretsMeta's research-only LLaMA weights were on a public torrent within a week of release
2023-03-16CopyrightCopyright Office makes disclosure of machine-generated content a duty in every registration application
2023-03-14Trade SecretsOpenAI ships GPT-4 and declines to publish its architecture, size, data or training method
2023-02-21CopyrightCopyright Office rules that prompting Midjourney does not make the prompter the author of the images
2023-02-17Fed. Cir.Video processing claims that recite conversion with unspecified parameters are abstract
2023-02-14USPTOUSPTO asks when an artificial intelligence contribution affects inventorship, and whether applicants should have to say so
2023-02-03CopyrightGetty sues Stability AI over 12 million training images and the watermarks that came out of the model
2023-01-26In-HouseNIST's voluntary risk framework asks for the model documentation a patent application needs anyway
2022
2022-12-06EU PolicyThe Council's position puts general purpose models inside the Artificial Intelligence Act
2022-11-30IndustryOpenAI opens a conversational model to the public, and every prompt typed into it leaves the company
2022-11-07EPOA sparsely connected neural network is a class of mathematical functions until it is tied to a technical task
2022-11-03CopyrightA class action over a generative model's training data makes provenance a litigation question
2022-10-17Fed. Cir.Interface claims written as results, synchronizing and layering without saying how, fail at both Alice steps
2022-10-13Fed. Cir.Collecting location data is abstract, but a specific use of it to rerank search results survives the pleadings
2022-10-07US PolicyExport controls on advanced computing chips to China change where models get trained, and where to file
2022-10-04US PolicyThe White House names five expectations for automated systems, and each one is an engineering mechanism
2022-09-28Fed. Cir.Plausible allegations that a claimed network arrangement was unconventional defeat a Rule 12 eligibility motion
2022-08-23Fed. Cir.Federal Circuit rejects administrative-law and due process attacks on Alice and keeps the eligibility fight inside the two steps
2022-08-23FilingsDeepMind's issued claims cover decoding a translation or summary by combining channel and source scores
2022-08-22IndustryStable Diffusion's open-weights release puts a working text-to-image model in the prior art and in every competitor's hands
2022-08-05Fed. Cir.Federal Circuit holds that an inventor must be a natural person, so an artificial intelligence system cannot be one
2022-08-02LegislationTillis bill would replace the judicial exceptions with a statutory list and make machine-embodied processes eligible
2022-06-30Supreme CourtSupreme Court declines American Axle, leaving the result-only claim rule in place over the Solicitor General's advice
2022-06-29USPTOUSPTO opens an artificial intelligence partnership with eligibility, inventorship and disclosure on the first agenda
2022-06-24USPTOUSPTO tells Congress that stakeholders split on eligibility law and that some have turned to trade secrets instead
2022-06-17CanadaCanada's Federal Court orders the Patent Office to construe claims purposively before judging computer-implemented eligibility
2022-04-13AustraliaAustralia's Full Federal Court reverses and holds that only a natural person can be an inventor
2022-02-14CopyrightCopyright Office refuses to register an image a machine made on its own, because an author must be human
2021
2021-12-21EPOThe EPO's Legal Board of Appeal holds that the designated inventor must be a person with legal capacity
2021-11-15Fed. Cir.A claim to how a flag assigns timeslots is an improvement to the communication system, not an abstract allocation
2021-11-11GermanyGermany's Federal Patent Court accepts an inventor designation that names the person and records the machine's role
2021-10-04Fed. Cir.An ordered set of steps the specification explains as a security improvement is an inventive concept at step two
2021-09-02District CourtA federal court holds that an inventor under the Patent Act must be a natural person, and a machine cannot be one
2021-08-26Fed. Cir.Two examples do not describe a genus defined by what it binds, and a $1.2 billion verdict falls with the claims
2021-07-30AustraliaAn Australian judge holds that an artificial intelligence system can be an inventor under the Patents Act 1990
2021-07-28South AfricaSouth Africa grants the first patent naming an artificial intelligence as inventor, without examining the question
2021-07-15IndustryDeepMind publishes AlphaFold's method and code, and had filed its patent applications before doing so
2021-06-29In-HouseGitHub ships a code-generating assistant, and the inventorship and disclosure questions arrive with it
2021-06-11Fed. Cir.Reciting camera hardware does not save a claim whose advance is using one image to enhance another
2021-04-21EU PolicyThe Commission's proposed Artificial Intelligence Act would make model documentation a legal duty for high-risk systems
2021-03-25Fed. Cir.Improved accuracy of a statistical prediction is an enhancement to the abstract idea, not a technological improvement
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These summaries are general information about published decisions, agency guidance and legislation. They are not legal advice and do not create an attorney-client relationship. Whether any of this applies to a particular company depends on facts not described here.