World’s First: Artificial Intelligence Earns Patent as an Inventor

By Art Hallman

In a previous edition of Fish Tank, we reviewed issues surrounding Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) as possible “inventors.” There, we reported that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) declared AI cannot be an inventor because it is not a natural person. The AI at issue involved an AI system called Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience (DABUS), which was created by AI pioneer Stephen Thaler. DABUS ultimately created designs for an emergency flashing warning light and a food container including improved grip and heat transfer. Thaler filed several patent applications worldwide for these inventions listing DABUS as the sole inventor.

On July 28, 2021, South Africa became the first country in the world to award a patent with AI as its inventor. Here, the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC), South Africa’s IP office, officially granted the patent, listing DABUS as the inventor and Thaler as the patent owner.

Additionally, on July 30, 2021, the Federal Court of Australia in Thaler v. Commissioner of Patents [2021] FCA 879, found that an AI system can be an inventor. Here, Justice Beach found that DABUS can be an inventor and that the term “inventor” can be defined as an agent noun, and that an agent can be a person or thing that invents.
 
The allowance of the patent in South Africa and the Federal Court ruling in Australia are very important for encouraging individuals and companies to make, develop, and use AI to create socially valuable innovations. These events could be the first step towards wide acceptance of AI inventors around the world. Moreover, this could prompt a larger question for our society: if an AI can become an inventor, should AI also be granted other rights? This is a question that has only been answered in science fiction media.