{"id":45881,"date":"2026-05-20T19:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/45881\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T19:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:19:07","slug":"uspto-seeking-ai-driven-image-search-tool-for-patent-examiners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/45881\/","title":{"rendered":"USPTO seeking AI-driven image search tool for patent examiners"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is seeking information on AI-driven image search tools to assist its patent examiners, according to a contract opportunity document posted<\/a> Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The tool would be used to \u201cimprove search completeness and examiner efficiency,\u201d the office said in the request, specifically while evaluating existing global patents and references known as \u201cprior art.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the volume of global intellectual property filings grows, relying solely on text-based or traditional classification searches \u2026 is no longer sufficient, particularly for highly visual design and utility applications,\u201d the RFI said. \u201cThis AI-driven tool is intended to augment, rather than replace, existing USPTO enterprise search systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

USPTO receives thousands of patent applications every year, with about 1.26 million total pending as of last month, data shows<\/a>. It has nearly 774,000 unexamined applications, and fiscal 2026 is the first time in nearly a decade that the office\u2019s output has surpassed filings within a fiscal year, according to an April press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it may not seem like much, this milestone is significant because we\u2019ve reached the tipping point of momentum now in favor of the applicant,\u201d USPTO Director John A. Squires said in the release. \u201cWe\u2019re steadily releasing robust AI tools to assist our examiners, and we\u2019re about halfway to our aggressive goal for new examiner hires. That\u2019s why I\u2019m bullish.\u201d<\/p>\n

It takes nearly two-and-a-half years for a patent application to reach a final decision, USPTO data shows<\/a>, and the office has nearly 8,800<\/a> staff patent examiners, not including design patent examiners.<\/p>\n

Aaron Capron, partner and AI tech tools committee co-lead at intellectual property law firm Finnegan, and a former patent examiner, said he\u2019s not surprised the USPTO is seeking a new vendor for this, largely because some large language models have problems with examining figures and the office would need something more custom-built.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach application has different figures, and how people draft the figures is different, and so maybe there\u2019s a lot more variability,\u201d Capron said. He said it\u2019s a starting point, and if the agency \u201ccan be as transparent as possible regarding the process, it would help.\u201d<\/p>\n

The request for information says the tool should be highly accurate, scalable and FedRAMP authorized. It should take images as direct queries and be \u201chighly configurable\u201d to \u201csignificantly improve\u201d patent quality.<\/p>\n

Responses to the request are due June 19 at noon.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"K.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWritten by K. Sophie Will
\n\t\t\tK. Sophie Will is a reporter at FedScoop. Previously, she was an investigative data reporter at Bloomberg Industry Group. An award-winning journalist and Utah native, she graduated from Boston University and formerly worked with CQ Roll Call, the Utah Investigative Journalism Project, the Deseret News, USA Today, Reuters, HuffPost, WGBH, and more. Reach her on Signal at ksophiewill.66 or by phone at 617-888-0900.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is seeking information on AI-driven image search tools to assist its patent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,25,111,27824,27825,16049,16054,27826],"class_list":["post-45881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ai","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence-ai","tag-finnegan","tag-john-a-squires","tag-patents","tag-trademarks","tag-u-s-patent-and-trademark-office-uspto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}