LONDON: The Supreme Court of United Kingdom has ruled that the Artificial intelligence (AI) cannot be legally named as an inventor to claim patent rights.
The top court in its judgment on Wednesday observed that an inventor must be a human in order to apply for patent rights under the law.
The ruling comes after technologist Dr Stephen Thaler moved the country’s top court over his rejection of bid by Intellectual Property Office (IPO) to list an AI he created as the inventor for two patents.
The US-based developer said the AI machine named DABUS created a food or drink container and a light beacon which makes DABUS entitled to claim rights over its inventions.
The IPO in December 2019 said it cannot register DABUS as the inventor in patent applications because it is not a person.
The developer later filed a case in the High Court, that after hearing the arguments upheld the IPO’s decision in July 2020.
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He then moved Supreme Court against the High Court’s verdict. After hearing the case, a five-member panel of the Supreme Court unanimously dismissed Dr Thaler’s petition.
The court observed that the IPO was right to decide that DABUS is not and was not an inventor of any new product or process described in the patent applications.
The Supreme Court also dismissed Dr Thaler’s argument that he was entitled to apply for patents for DABUS inventions on the basis that he was the AI’s owner.
