United States of America: Issued Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruling rejecting AI system as inventor (Thaler v USPTO)

On 5 August 2022, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued its decision on Thaler v. Vidal, ruling that an AI system cannot be listed as a named inventor on a patent application. On 8 June 2020, Dr Stephen Thaler filed a claim before the District Court for the Easter State of Virginia against the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) after the USPTO refused two patent applications where an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system was listed as the sole inventor because it deemed that a machine does not qualify as an inventor. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit agreed with the District Court and the USPTO, stating that an inventor listed on a patent application must be a human being since the Patent Act expressly provides that inventors are “individuals.” The claimant filed an appeal on 9 September 2022.