The epi AI Guidelines are attracting interest
The epi Guidelines on Use of Generative AI that were approved by Council at C98 (Budapest) have been attracting considerable interest in the IP profession globally.
Tim Powell (GB), who chairs epi‘s Working Group on Use of AI and under whose chairmanship the Guidelines evolved, on 8 September 2025 contributed as a speaker in the EPO’s online “Opposition Matters” conference. In this he was able to discuss several aspects of the EPO’s use of AI, in opposition proceedings, with Dr Régis Quélavoine. Dr Quélavoine is a Director in Opposition whose doctorate was in areas of speech recognition and artificial intelligence.
Tim also recently got the opportunity to contribute to a podcast (Exploring AI in the Patent Profession) in the EPO’s “Talk Innovation” series, explaining (alongside some other, knowledgeable speakers) the ethical basis for the Guidelines. The podcast was released on 14 October 2025.
A further opportunity to talk about the Guidelines arose in the guise of the September 2025 running of the highly-regarded “Los Lunes de Patentes” one-day conferences organised by the University of Barcelona. Here an enthusiastic audience made up of experienced and trainee patent attorneys listened to a presentation on the ethics of use of generative AI by patent attorneys, and raised a number of challenging questions following the presentation.
AI furthermore was the theme of the CIPA Congress 2025 held in Bristol, UK on 9 October. Numerous highly knowledgeable experts, including David Kappos (former Commissioner of Patents at the USPTO), spoke on their experiences, hopes and fears for the use of AI in the IP profession. The Guidelines were extensively referenced, and the CIPA Congress exposure of them may in the view of your author result in communication of epi’s AI working group collaborating in the future with its counterpart in the New York Patent Bar.
The Working Group continues to review aspects of practice relating to use of AI, and recently has produced a number of clarifying guidance opinions in response to enquiries from Members of epi. Anecdotal comments suggest that the opinions are proving helpful to practitioners and commentators alike.
