Legal Challenge Over Decision That AI Machines Cannot Be Granted Patents - AI Summary

Abbott approached Thaler about using the AI as the basis of the case and with a team of lawyers, all working pro bono, they filed patent applications in more than a dozen countries listing DABUS as the inventor of a beverage container it created. New Zealand's Assistant Commissioner of Patents rejected the initial application in January, ruling that the term "inventor" intrinsically refers to a natural person. Abbott said the test case was not about any sort of legal rights for machines, rather it was about trying to get a patent for "the inventive output from an AI" that lacks a traditional human inventor. Some firms were already using AI programmes to discover new drugs or to find ways to repurpose materials but the companies that many of the lawyers on the case represent wanted greater clarity on patent ownership before investing further, he said. The application was declined in Australia but later overturned by the Federal Court in 2021 which said the country's patent act had no specific provision excluding AI systems as inventors.