The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has announced the Automated Search Pilot Program, a new initiative designed to evaluate the impact of sharing the results of an AI-assisted prior art search before formal examination of patent applications. The goal is to improve patent quality, enhance applicant awareness of potential prior art, and assess the scalability of automated search tools within the Office’s workflow.
Purpose of the Pilot
Under this new program, the USPTO will conduct an automated search of certain newly filed patent applications and send applicants an Automated Search Results Notice (ASRN). The ASRN will list potentially relevant prior art references—up to ten documents—ranked by an artificial intelligence (AI) tool trained on publicly available patent data.
By providing these results before examination begins, the USPTO aims to give applicants an early view of possible prior art issues. This may allow applicants to make strategic adjustments—such as filing preliminary amendments or requesting deferral of examination—before the examiner begins substantive review. Applicants are not required to respond to the ASRN.
Program Duration and Participation Limits
The Automated Search Pilot Program will begin accepting petitions on October 20, 2025, and continue until April 20, 2026, or until each USPTO Technology Center (TC) has accepted 200 participating applications, whichever comes first. In total, the USPTO expects to admit approximately 1,600 applications across all TCs. The Office may extend or terminate the program at its discretion depending on workload, resources, or participation trends.
Eligibility Requirements
To qualify for participation, an application must:
- Be an original, noncontinuing, nonprovisional utility application filed under 35 U.S.C. 111(a) on or after October 20, 2025, and on or before April 20, 2026.
- Be filed electronically through Patent Center and comply with DOCX submission requirements for the specification, claims, and abstract.
- Be enrolled in the Patent Center e-Office Action Program.
Excluded from the program are PCT national-stage entries, plant, design, reissue, and continuing applications (continuations, divisionals, or CIPs).
How to Apply
Applicants seeking to participate must file a petition under 37 CFR 1.182 using Form PTO/SB/470, titled “Certification and Petition Under 37 CFR 1.182 to Participate in the Automated Search Pilot Program.”
- The petition must be filed electronically on the same day the application is filed.
- It must include the petition fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(f).
- Only one petition per application is permitted, and the USPTO will not allow corrections if a petition is dismissed for deficiencies.
Petition forms and additional details are available at www.uspto.gov/PatentForms.
How the Automated Search Works
Once accepted, the USPTO will perform an AI-driven prior art search using internal tools that analyze the application’s Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) codes, claims, specification, and abstract. The AI system then searches multiple databases—U.S. Patents, Pre-Grant Publications (PG-Pubs), and the Foreign Image and Text (FIT) database—to identify similar disclosures.
The AI models are trained on publicly available patent data, including classifications, citations, and examiner-rated similarity, but specifically exclude applicant, inventor, and assignee information to minimize bias. The USPTO has implemented strict confidentiality and data-security measures consistent with 35 U.S.C. 122(a).
The Automated Search Results Notice (ASRN)
After the automated search is completed, the USPTO will issue an ASRN to the applicant and place a copy in the application’s file.
- The ASRN is not an Office action under 35 U.S.C. 132, and no response is required.
- It lists up to 10 references, ranked by relevance, and provides a search string that can be used in the Patent Public Search (PPUBS) tool to view U.S. patents and publications.
- The ASRN resembles Form PTO-892, listing the document number, inventor, date, and CPC classification.
Applicants may use the ASRN to evaluate the strength of their filing and, if desired, file a preliminary amendment, petition for express abandonment (to obtain partial fee refunds), or request deferral of examination.
Examiner Consideration of ASRN Documents
When substantive examination begins, the examiner will consider the ASRN documents in the same manner as other search materials in the USPTO’s databases. The examiner is not required to list the ASRN references on Form PTO-892 unless they are relied upon in a rejection. References that are later cited by the examiner or applicant will appear on the face of the issued patent.
Evaluation and Next Steps
The pilot program will help the USPTO measure:
- The usefulness of pre-examination searches to applicants.
- The scalability and efficiency of automated search generation.
- The potential for AI-enhanced tools to improve examination quality and reduce prosecution time.
Participants may have an opportunity to provide feedback during or after the program. The USPTO plans to follow the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) leading practices for pilot design, ensuring clear objectives, relevant data collection, and transparency in results.
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To better understand how modern tools are changing patent research, you can also explore 10 Obscure Patent Facts You Probably Didn’t Know.
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