An artificial intelligence system cannot be registered as a patent owner. At least not in the UK, according to the country’s Supreme Court.
The UK’s highest court has ruled that “an inventor must be a person,” and only a person can apply for patents under current English law.
The ruling was the culmination of a long-running legal battle in the UK by developer Stephen Thaler. The American had been fighting to have his artificial intelligence, called DABUS, listed as an inventor on two patents.
Thaler claims that DABUS independently developed a food and drink container and a light beacon. Courts in the US and the European Union have rejected similar claims by Thaler.
The UK Intellectual Property Office rejected Thaler’s application in 2019, saying it could not formally register DABUS as an inventor because “it” was not a person. After the lower courts sided with the patent office, Thaler appealed to the Supreme Court, where a panel of judges unanimously dismissed the case.
The judges said DABUS “does not constitute a person, let alone an individual,” and that “it has not developed any relevant invention.”
Legal experts said the case shows how British laws have not kept pace with technology, and that current practice should be updated to take into account the capabilities and recent developments in artificial intelligence, highlighted by generative AI systems such as OpenAI ChatGPT, which can quickly write poetry, songs, not to mention computer code.