Insights from the 2023 Robot Patent Drafting Conference: The Future of AI in Patent Law

Artificial intelligence is already reshaping patent practice, but adopting it swiftly, efficiently and securely is where most firms get stuck. Patent professionals know the productivity upside to using gen AI tools, yet often get derailed when informal experiments run into real-world problems: client confidentiality concerns, inferior work-product quality, delayed internal approvals, and decision-fatigue.

This guide lays out a practical, 30-day plan for adopting AI in patent work, moving from ad hoc trials to a controlled, firm-ready strategy. It shows how you can run a focused pilot, set clear guardrails, train attorneys, and document decisions in a way that satisfies partners, clients, and internal stakeholders.

Hauptman Ham is redefining patent prosecution with Solve Intelligence. By integrating AI-driven workflows into their patent practice, Hauptman Ham attorneys and agents are delivering office action responses that set a new standard—precise, insightful, and creatively crafted. Their clients are gaining a strategic edge with more innovative outcomes that stand out in a competitive landscape.  

Firm leader Ron Embry describes the value of Solve Intelligence in Hauptman Ham’s patent practice.

“The Patent Copilot system allows practitioners at Hauptman Ham to use more creative strategies in pursuit of broad, defensible patent claims for our clients. We use the advanced functionality of the Solve Intelligence system to explore multiple potential avenues in responding to rejections and prosecuting families of patent applications. We find the tool to be quite useful in integrating different legal strategies into one unified, comprehensive, and nuanced approach to obtaining patent protection for our clients.”

The European Patent Office has published a preview of its Guidelines for Examination, effective April 2026. This update incorporates the landmark Enlarged Board decisions G 1/24 (claim interpretation) and G 1/23 (products on the market), alongside a significant change of practice for selection inventions, new rules on colour drawings, and the EPO's first formal guidance on artificial intelligence.

The EPO and IP Australia are launching a new PCT pilot programme on 1 March 2026 which will allow Australian applicants to designate the EPO as their International Searching and Preliminary Examining Authorities (ISA and IPEA). 

Given the EPO’s rigorous approach to clarity and support requirements, for this pilot programme to succeed, Australian applicants and patent practitioners will have to adapt to draft international applications with EPO-specific requirements in mind.

The launch of this pilot programme will add a new layer of complexity — (and opportunity) for patent practitioners. In a landscape where jurisdictional nuance can shape international search and examination outcomes, AI‑augmented tools such as Solve Intelligence's Patent Copilot^TM are becoming increasingly valuable.