Patents and Artificial Intelligence: An 'Obvious' Slippery Slope

Stephen Thaler and Ryan Abbott plan to bring a light beacon, a beverage container, and a machine called Dabus into court, along with a simple question: Does an inventor need to be human? Depending on how they respond, a panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit could open the door to another significant question: What is "obvious" to a machine? A basic tenet of U.S. law is that patents aren't awarded for inventions that are obvious. The standard of obviousness in patent law is measured against a hypothetical person of ordinary skill in the art. Putting artificial intelligence, with its potential for near omnipotent capabilities, on equal footing as human inventors could have a significant impact on patent law's obviousness standard, attorneys and patent professionals say.