Scientist seeks to challenge AI patent bid
Stephen Thaler has so far failed to persuade US and UK courts to name AI system DABUS as an inventor | Thaler argues that the Federal Circuit’s ruling goes against the purpose of the Patent Act.
In the latest development in the artificial intelligence (AI) inventor saga, physicist Stephen Thaler has asked a US appeals court to rehear the patent suit.
Thaler—who created the AI system DABUS—has asked the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to rehear his bid for the AI system to be named as an inventor on patents.
In August this year, the Federal Circuit concluded that both applications that named DABUS as the sole inventor lacked a valid inventor and were incomplete.
The Federal Circuit had affirmed the US Patent and Trademark Office’s interpretation that “a machine does not qualify as an inventor”, with an “inventor” being limited to “natural persons”.
According to the court, there was no “ambiguity” in the fact that the patent law requires an “inventor” to be a “natural person”.
However, Thaler has now asked the Federal Circuit to rehear the case, either before a new panel or before the full Federal Circuit.
According to Thaler, the panel’s ruling was based on “an undefined term, ‘individual’, in the Patent Act, even though dictionary definitions relied upon by the panel actually include AI”.
The petition for rehearing, filed yesterday, September 19, also argued that the Federal Circuit had disregarded several critical US Supreme Court precedents as well as the explicit language of 35 USC section 103 (which covers conditions for patentability; non-obvious subject matter).
“It also goes against the purpose of the Patent Act to incentivise innovation, encourage disclosure of trade secrets, and promote commercialisation of inventions,” said the petition.
Last month, the UK Supreme Court granted permission to hear Thaler’s challenge to the UK Intellectual Property Office’s decision not to allow DABUS’s listing as an inventor on two patents.#
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