In a landmark ruling, the European Patent Office (EPO) has rejected two patent applications[1] wherein request was lodged with the EPO for designating machine (Artificial Intelligence) as an “inventor”[2].
The ground cited for rejecting the aforementioned patent applications is that the patent applications did not meet the requisite requirement as enumerated under the EPC that an inventor designated in the application should be a human being, not a machine.
The above artificial intelligence inventor namely, “DABUS” has been in news ever since patent applications were filed with the EPO on behalf of DABUS. DABUS has been invented by Dr Stephen Thaler, Founder & Board Chairman at Imagitron, LLC.
The inventions of “Dabus” as mentioned in the patent applications includes “food container” and “devices and methods for advanced attention”.
Ever since, the impugned applications were instituted with the EPO, researchers and inventors have been speculating on this interesting aspect of patent registration. This ruling of EPO puts all debates at rest to hold that Artificial Intelligence Machine can’t be an inventor.
Reasoned order of the EPO in the above matter is expected in January, 2020.
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[1] EP18275163 and EP18275174