The Supreme Court of Japan has dismissed an American engineer's appeal to have artificial intelligence (AI) named as the inventor on a patent application [1]. The engineer had claimed the Patent Office's rejection of the application was illegal. The top court's decision finalized the rulings of the Tokyo District Court and the Intellectual Property High Court, which had dismissed the plaintiff's request and said inventors under the Patent Law are restricted to “natural persons” [2]. According to the rulings by the two lower courts, the plaintiff submitted an application in 2020 for food containers and other items invented by DABUS, an artificial intelligence the plaintiff had created [3].
The plaintiff had listed the inventor's name as “DABUS, the artificial intelligence that autonomously invented this invention.” The Patent Office ordered the plaintiff to provide the name of a person as the inventor. In this lawsuit, the plaintiff insisted that “patent applications even for inventions created by AI should be accepted.” However, the district court ruled that the Patent Law “presumes that an inventor is a natural person” [4]. The high court supported this position, noting that the law had not anticipated the rapid development of AI, and that answering the question of whether patent rights should be granted to AI-created inventions “would require discussion given the impact this would have on society” [5]. This ruling has significant implications for the future of AI innovation and patent law, as it restricts the ability of AI systems to be recognized as inventors [6].
Sources
- The Japan News - AI Can’t Be Listed as Inventor on Patent Applications, Japan’s Top Court Rules
- IP High Court in Japan Rules AI Cannot Be Listed as Inventor - Nagashima
- IP High Court Case Regarding Patent Inventorship - Shiga Patent
- Japan supreme court rules only humans can be patent inventors - AA
- Can AI Be an Inventor on Patents?
