Federal court rules Artificial Intelligence cannot be an 'inventor' under US patent law

The US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on Wednesday ruled that an artificial intelligence (AI) machine cannot be an inventor under the Patent Act. The action was a motion for summary judgement concerning two patent applications filed by Stephen Thaler for an AI machine called DABUS. DABUS was listed as the inventor for Neural Flame--a light beacon that flashes in a new and inventive manner to attract attention--and Fractal Container--a beverage container based on fractal geometry. Thaler's patent applications were rejected by the US Patent and Trademarks Office (USPTO) and he challenged this refusal as "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of direction and not in accordance with the law". He filed this action seeking a declaration that a patent application should not be rejected only on grounds that there is no natural person identified as the inventor and that a patent application for an invention by AI should list the AI as the inventor when the criteria for inventorship has been fulfilled by the AI. The court rejected Thaler's contentions, holding that the definitions provided by Congress for "inventor" within the Patent Act reference an "individual" whose ordinary dictionary and statutory meaning is a natural person or a human being.