UK's Highest Court Dismisses AI-Generated Inventions' Patent Claims

Dr. Stephen Thaler, a computer scientist, made an attempt to submit two patent applications on behalf of an AI model that he developed.

The highest court in the United Kingdom has declined the appeal of a computer scientist who was seeking recognition for his AI model as the inventor of two newly patented products.

The court ruled that Dr. Stephen Thaler's AI product, DABUS, could not be acknowledged as the inventor of a food container and a flashing light beacon in its decision.

The unanimous decision reached on December 20th was in line with previous rulings from both the U.K. Court of Appeal and the U.K. High Court. The court's conclusion was that a patent must have a 'natural person' associated with it, and since DABUS is not considered a person, Dr. Thaler's appeal was dismissed.

In October 2018, Dr. Thaler submitted two patents which were subsequently rejected by the U.K. Intellectual Property Office in August 2019. Following this, the computer scientist initiated court proceedings to challenge the decision.

The ongoing issue was that Dr. Thaler did not identify himself as the inventor but instead argued that he only invented DABUS, which in turn invented the food container and flashing light autonomously, without any human assistance.

But the lower U.K. courts relied on the Patent Act 1977 to reject Thaler’s claim.

"Only a person can have rights. A machine cannot," the Court of Appeals ruled in September 2021. "A patent is a statutory right and it can only be granted to a person."

Although the U.K. Supreme Court dismissed the case, they clarified that the current decision does not establish a binding precedent for future similar cases.

"This is not to impose an additional requirement for patentability," the U.K. Supreme Court noted. "Nor does it introduce a new ground for refusing patent applications."

According to records, Dr. Thaler made attempts to patent DABUS in multiple jurisdictions including the United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. However, his applications were rejected in all jurisdictions except for South Africa, where DABUS was approved in July 2021.