USPTO extends its artificial intelligence prior art pilot, now free, to applications filed through June 1

2026-04-16Costs

United States Patent and Trademark Office, "USPTO extends the Artificial Intelligence Search Automated Pilot Program (ASAP!)," uspto.gov (Apr. 16, 2026); "USPTO waives the petition fee for the Artificial Intelligence Search Automated Pilot Program (ASAP!)," uspto.gov (Mar. 23, 2026); Automated Search Pilot Program, 90 Fed. Reg. 48161 (Oct. 8, 2025)

The Office extended the Artificial Intelligence Search Automated Pilot Program, known as ASAP!, which opened in October 2025 for original, noncontinuing utility applications filed under Section 111(a) of Title 35 of the United States Code. Petitions, which must be filed on Form PTO/SB/470 in Patent Center on the application's filing date, with the specification, claims and abstract in DOCX format and enrollment in the e-Office Action Program, will be accepted until June 1, 2026 or until each utility technology center has 400 accepted applications, whichever comes first, instead of closing on April 20. On March 23 the Office had waived the petition fee under 37 C.F.R. 1.17(f) for petitions filed on or after that date and doubled its target to at least 3,200 applications. A participating applicant receives, after pre-examination processing and before examination, an Automated Search Results Notice listing up to ten documents from United States patents, published applications and foreign image and text collections, ranked by an internal artificial intelligence tool. No reply is required. The examiner considers the listed documents as part of the Office search file and lists them on a PTO-892 only if relied on in a rejection; they appear on the face of the patent only if the examiner lists them or the applicant cites them in an information disclosure statement. Continuing, national stage, design, plant and reissue applications are excluded.

What it changesFor an applicant filing original utility applications on artificial intelligence or software before June 1, the pilot now costs nothing but one form on the filing date, and it returns the Office's own machine search months before a first action. Use it as a preliminary amendment opportunity: if the notice lists a reference that reads on the broadest claim, amend before the examiner picks up the case and save a round of prosecution. Cite in an information disclosure statement any listed reference the claims will be argued around, because the Office prints only documents the examiner lists or the applicant cites, and a continuation will not receive its own automated search. Record how the listed documents compare with the examiner's eventual search, because the Office is collecting exactly that data to decide whether automated search becomes a standard part of examination.

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Burbage Law is the practice of Jon Burbage, a registered patent attorney. 342 United States patents have issued from applications he wrote; the full list is on the Patents page. More about Jon Burbage.

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