German Court Rules AI-Generated Inventions Can Be Patented with Humans as Inventors
TapTechNews July 12th news, according to the report of DevClass on the 10th local time, a court in Germany ruled last week that as long as humans are listed as inventors, inventions generated by AI can obtain patents.
This case was promoted by the Artificial Inventor Project. This project initiated a series of public interest legal test cases, seeking to obtain intellectual property rights for AI-generated results in the absence of traditional human inventors or authors. The goal of this project is to stimulate discussions about the impact of AI and similar technologies and provide guidance on the protectability of AI results.
Specifically, the Federal Court of Justice, the highest civil court in Germany, ruled that the lunch box design made by the AI system named DABUS can apply for a patent. The human applicant - that is, the scientist who owns DABUS is listed as the inventor, but it is clearly stated in the application that the product was conceived by artificial intelligence.
Based on previous reports by TapTechNews, the Tokyo District Court in Japan once ruled in May this year on whether the equipment invented by AI can obtain a patent - ruling that it will not grant a patent on the grounds that the inventor must be a human.
The UK Supreme Court also made almost the same ruling in a similar case last December. Last December, an American computer scientist lost his lawsuit when applying for a patent for an invention created by his artificial intelligence system. The UK Supreme Court rejected his request because according to the UK Patent Law, the inventor of a patent must be a natural person.
Related reading:
The Tokyo District Court of Japan rejected the patent application of AI invention: The inventor is limited to humans.
The US Patent and Trademark Office: AI cannot be listed as an inventor, but people can use AI tools when inventing.
The UK Supreme Court: The inventor of a patent must be a natural person and cannot be an AI.