When we first covered Ex parte Desjardins, we noted that the decision, which was issued just days after Director John Squires took office, could mark the beginning of a new era for AI and software patent eligibility at the USPTO. That prediction now appears well-founded. On November 4, 2025, Director Squires designated the Desjardins decision as precedential, ensuring that its reasoning now binds all patent examiners and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).
As discussed in our prior post, Desjardins vacated a § 101 rejection against claims directed to training a machine learning model on multiple tasks while preserving performance on prior tasks. The Appeals Review Panel, led by Director Squires, concluded that these claims integrated an abstract idea into a practical application by improving the functioning of the machine learning model itself, in particular by reducing storage requirements, lowering system complexity, and preventing “catastrophic forgetting.”
By making the decision precedential, Director Squires has formally embedded this reasoning into USPTO policy, confirming that improvements to machine learning models can constitute patent-eligible technological advancements under the Alice framework. Examiners and PTAB panels must now apply Desjardins when evaluating AI-related claims, rather than reflexively treating them as unpatentable “algorithms.”
Additionally, Squires reaffirmed that §§ 102, 103, and 112, not § 101, are the proper tools for defining the scope of patent protection. This focus may curb the overuse of § 101 rejections and redirect examination toward traditional questions of novelty, nonobviousness, and enablement.
Taken together, the precedential designation of Desjardins cements a policy recalibration toward enabling, rather than constraining, innovation in AI and software, thus offering greater clarity and predictability for applicants navigating subject-matter eligibility at the USPTO.