ASAP!: USPTO seeks participants for six-month old AI Search Pilot

With less than one month remaining in the original Artificial Intelligence Search Automated Pilot (ASAP!) that began on October 20, 2025, the USPTO announced key modifications with respect to timing and fees.

While the pilot was originally limited to original utility applications filed between October 20, 2025, and April 20, 2026, the USPTO has just announced that they will accept petitions to participate in the program until either April 20, 2026, or the date that each Technology Center accepts at least 400 applications into this program, whichever occurs first. The current USPTO dashboard reports 169 petitions to participate received and 76 granted. Thus, it appears that extension of the deadline for participation is likely due to low participation levels for a program that had initially planned to accept 1600 applications (now doubled to 3200 applications, distributed between the Technology Centers).

To help achieve this participation goal, the USPTO sua sponte waived the petition fee ($450 for Regular Entity) to participate in the ASAP! program. This fee waiver applies to petitions filed on or after March 23, 2026.  

As previously described, the USPTO will conduct a pre-examination, automated AI search for participating applications and will then send an Automated Search Results Notice (ASRN) containing up to 10 documents listed in descending order by relevance. While Examiners will consider the ASRN documents, they will not appear on the face of the patent unless cited by the Examiner in a List of References Cited file by either the Examiner or by the Applicant in an Information Disclosure Statement.  

Generally, many applicants may opt to conduct a pre-filing search where the results of the search can be taken into consideration during the drafting process, but rarely conduct a post-filing search when options are significantly more limited. As the original program included a petition fee without giving the applicant the benefit of a pre-filing search (and could very well also result in additional potential costs associated with review of the ASRN documents or submission of an IDS), it is not particularly surprising that so few applicants chose to participate, to date. It is possible that with the fee waiver, the USPTO will see participation rates that will enable the Office to conduct a meaningful assessment of the program. Unless an applicant is simply eager to help the USPTO assess the AI search tool, the other considerations (and concerns) remain, so the USPTO might not see the results ASAP.