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An American computer scientist has pleaded to the Supreme Court to rule in his favour to entitle patents over inventions that have been created by artificial intelligence (AI) systems.
DABUS Case Plea
Stephen Thaler wants two patents to be granted in the UK over inventions that were created by his AI system known as DABUS. Previously, his attempt to register the patents has been refused on the grounds that only a human or a company can register a patent, not a machine.
However, during the appeal to the Supreme Court Robert Jehan who is the lawyer acting on behalf of Mr Thaler argued that there is no specific requirement in UK patent law that an invention must be made by a human inventor for it to be patentable, hence Mr Thaler is entitled to the rights of the invention made by the DABUS system. He further argued that the owner of the AI system is entitled to the invention that was generated by the system and the patent should be granted if the invention is recognised as patentable.
DABUS Case Opposition
Stuart Baran, the lawyer working on behalf on the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) had an opposing view and stated that the appeal should be dismissed. Mr Baran argued that that the UK government has recently conducted a public consultation on how AI-created inventions should be handled in UK patent law.
Conclusion
It was concluded that the law won’t change which means that AI inventions would not be subject to patentable work. It was also pointed out that Mr Thaler has made similar applications in the European Union, the US, Australia, and Germany which have been refused, however it should be noted that his application to register the DABUS as an inventor was allowed in South Africa.
It can be suggested that Mr Thaler’s Supreme Court appeal is one of the first occasions where the issue of weather AI systems can own, and transfer patents has been heard and considered at a Supreme Court level. Therefore, it will be intriguing to see how this appeal unfolds as ultimately the law will need to be amended for a machine to be named as the inventor of a patent.
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By Abhiraj Aujla
