Takeaway: The USPTO has launched DesignVision, an AI-powered image search tool that enhances the speed and accuracy of design patent examinations, marking a major step toward modernizing IP review and improving patent quality.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has unveiled DesignVision, a new AI-powered image search tool that significantly upgrades how design patent examiners search for prior art. Integrated into the USPTO’s PE2E search suite, DesignVision allows examiners to submit images and receive visually similar results from U.S., EU, WIPO, and other global design databases—streamlining a once-manual, time-consuming process.

Designed to enhance both speed and accuracy, the tool helps examiners avoid missing relevant prior art and improves examination quality. DesignVision supplements, not replaces, traditional tools, and its use is recorded in each application for transparency.

While currently limited to internal USPTO use, the agency may open the tool to attorneys and inventors in the future. As part of the USPTO’s broader AI modernization plan, DesignVision marks a key step toward faster, more consistent, and higher-quality patent examination.