UK Supreme Court: AI cannot be an inventor of patents

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that artificial intelligence cannot be the inventor of a patent. A computer scientist wanted to patent inventions from his AI system in the UK, but that is not allowed, the court has ruled.

Stephen Thaler lost his appeal case to the Supreme Court on Wednesday. He wanted to be awarded two patents invented by his AI system called Dabus. The British Supreme Court unanimously disagreed with Thaler’s case. Under British patent law, it is stated that ‘an inventor must be a natural person’, the court ruled.

Thaler’s case revolved around two patent applications he filed with the British patent office IPO in 2018. That office rejected the applications because a patent inventor must be a person or company. Dabus could not be regarded as the inventor of the patents and Thaler, as owner of the AI ​​system, was also not entitled to the patents.

He appealed that decision, but the Supreme Court did not agree. The court relies on the British 1977 Patent Act, which states that a patent inventor must be a natural person. The Court therefore finds Thaler’s case unfounded. The appeal was not concerned with whether the definition of an inventor should be expanded in the future, the court said. That question was therefore not included in the ruling.

“The ruling establishes that UK patent law is currently completely unsuitable for protecting inventions generated autonomously by AI machines,” Thaler’s lawyers said in a statement to Reuters news agency. Thaler lost a similar appeal earlier this year the Supreme Court in the United Statesafter the US Patent Office also ruled that AI cannot apply for patents.