UK Supreme Court Ruling on AI and Patent Rights

The UK Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in December 2023, in the case of “Thaler v Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks [2023],” established that under the Patents Act 1977, an “inventor” must be a natural person, not artificial intelligence (AI). Dr. Stephen Thaler’s attempt to register patents for inventions claimed to be created by his AI system, DABUS, was rejected. The Court maintained that the legal definition of an inventor could not extend to machines or AI. This ruling aligns with similar decisions in other jurisdictions and marks a significant development in the AI landscape, particularly considering the evolving AI regulations in the EU and the AI Safety Summit. The case underscores the current legal framework’s limitations in accommodating the growing role of AI in innovation.