An artificial intelligence system cannot be named as an inventor on UK patent applications because it is not a person, a London court has ruled in a landmark decision.
Stephen Thaler, a US-based AI expert, brought a legal challenge against the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) after it rejected two patent applications that named his artificial intelligence (AI) machine Dabus as the inventor of a food container capable of changing shape and a flashing light.
The patent applications were filed by Thaler to the UK IPO in 2018 and stated that the inventions were the work of Dabus, an artificial neural network. In response to a box requiring Thaler to indicate how he had the right to be granted a patent, he wrote “by ownership of the creativity machine Dabus”.