Patents: Artificially Intelligent machine cannot be inventor

The European Patent Office (“EPO”) has recently refused two applications on the basis that the applicants had named an Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) system called DABUS as the inventor (Case: Grounds for the EPO decisions on EP 18 275 163 and EP 18 275 174, (27 January 2020)).

Interpreting the European Patent Convention (“EPC”), the examiner considered the EPC only provided for natural persons in relation to inventorship and made no provision for non-persons to be inventors. Under current law, AI machines have no legal personality and cannot claim to have acquired rights as an inventor in the employ of others as AI machines are merely owned, not employed. With increasing advancements in technology, it would appear that the EPC is failing to keep pace and needs to be revised.

This article has been published as part of the latest issue of our Commercial Brief, detailed within the In Brief section. You can view the other In Brief articles below:

• Data Protection: Warning to insolvency practitioners on sales of personal data
• Consumer Protection: Improved guidance on advertising issued to social media influencers and affiliates
• Commercial Leases and litigation costs: “all reasonable costs” clause in commercial lease secures payment of litigation costs on indemnity basis
• Intellectual Property: Digital Copyright Directive will not be adopted into UK law

ENDS

This is for information purposes only and is no substitute for, and should not be interpreted as, legal advice. All content was correct at the time of publishing and we cannot be held responsible for any changes that may invalidate this article.