After two patent applications made in 2018 listing AI as an "inventor", the case began to be discussed in the United Kingdom.

The speed of advancement and growth of technology is very fast. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technology that enables machines to acquire knowledge through experience, adapt to conditions and be able to perform tasks like humans.

Therefore, as time passes, machines become increasingly intelligent. And even though no one can say for sure how far this intelligence can reach, the revolution it is making in our world is quite real.

Because of this, measures are already being taken. For example, on Wednesday this week, the UK high court ruled that AI cannot be listed as an inventor in patent applications.

This was decided due to two patent applications that were submitted by Stephen Thaler in 2018. One was about the shape of food packaging, the other was about a flashlight. In these applications, he did not name himself as the inventor of the patents, but rather his AI machine called DABUS. Thus, he listed his personal right to patents for being the “owner of the ‘DABUS’ creativity machine”.

Process

The first response given to Thaler by the UK Intellectual Property Office was that he had failed to comply with patent stipulations that require a person to be listed as an inventor.

Furthermore, he also would not have been able to describe how his property rights derived from another “person”, which in this case was the AI DABUS.

As a result, Thaler appealed against this decision and stated that he did comply with all the requirements of the 1977 patent legislation, but was rejected. He then appealed to the country's High Court and the Court of Appeals, but he also lost in both.

At the time of the ruling, the UK Supreme Court said it was not ruling on the broad question of whether or not advanced techniques created by AI tools and machines should be patentable, or even whether the term “inventor” ” could be expanded.