UK Court: AI Can’t be Named as Inventor for Patents
A top court in the UK has said that AI cannot be named as an inventor of patents in a new case. According to Bloomberg via the Insurance Journal, this is in line with what other courts have said in the EU and the United States.
The report states that the Supreme Court of Britain rejected a request by Stephen Thaler, founder of Imagination Engines Inc. He was asking the court to name his AI DABUS as the patent holder for several patents.
However, according to British law, this could not be possible because as they state, “DABUS is not a person at all,” and thus the AI had no legal standing to request to become named as the patent inventor. The ruling would Thaler’s appeal unanimously.
At the center of the question are patents for a beverage container and a flashing light. Stephen Thaler claims that his AI DABUS is the inventor and has attempted to gain patents in multiple countries.
Oddly enough, the founder of Imagination Engines Inc had also claimed that “DABUS is a sentient being.” Though AGI is a possibility in the future, the ability to even measure sentience is a still hotly debated topic.
The ruling does not affect new advances made by AI-power machines as they are still able to be patented according to the judges. But not everyone feels confident in the ruling. According to Thaler’s lawyers, The UK’s “policy of prohibiting the grant of patents for AI-generated inventions acts as a major disincentive to innovation.”
But on the other end, the lawyer representing the government claimed that if a request to allow AI to patent inventions moved forward, it would separate the United Kingdom from other jurisdictions in how they deal with AI.
The lawyer went so far as to argue that inventors in the future could include their pets such as “my cat Felix” or “cosmic forces,” as patent inventors. Possibility of creating an unsustainable system that could negatively affect how patents are done.
Originally posted on OpenDataScience.com
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