United States of America: Lawsuit on classifications of AI systems as inventors of patents under US Patent Law (Thaler v USPTO)
Progress
Scope
Timeline of events
Supreme Court declines review of AI-generated work copyright case (Thaler v Perlmutter)
On 2 March 2026, the Supreme Court of the United States denied a petition for a writ of certiorari in Stephen Thaler v Shira Perlmutter, Register of Copyrights and Director of the United States Copyright Office. The case concerned the copyrightabili…
Columbia District Court of Appeals issued ruling upholding human authorship requirement for copyright protection (Thaler v USPTO/case No. 23-5233)
On 18 March 2025, the Columbia District Court of Appeals upheld the United States Copyright Office’s decision that human authorship is required for copyright protection under the Copyright Act of 1978. The ruling reaffirmed that artificial intellige…
Issued District Court of Columbia ruling denying copyright to AI system owner (Thaler v USPTO)
On 18 August 2023, the US District Court for the District of Columbia issued its ruling in a lawsuit on the copyright registration of art created by Artificial Intelligence. The plaintiff is the owner of an Artificial Intelligence System called "Cre…
Issued Supreme Court ruling rejecting appeal petition (Thaler v USPTO)
On 24 April 2023, the US Supreme Court denied the petition filed by Stephen Thaler to hear a challenge against the US Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) decision refusing to issue patents for inventions created by artificial intelligence (AI). On…
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 t…
US Copyright review board rejects request of recognition of artwork authorship by artificial intelligence system
On 14 February 2022, the Review Board of the US Copyright Office rejected a request to review its denial to register a two-dimensional artwork, generated by an artificial intelligence (AI) system, called "A Recent Entrance to Paradise". The Board co…
Issued District Court of Virginia ruling rejecting AI system as inventor (Thaler v USPTO)
On 2 September 2021, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled in favour of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in Thaler v. Hirshfeld, stating that artificial intelligence (AI) cannot be listed as an invento…
US Copyright Office rejects reconsideration request of copyright for artificial intelligence system
On 30 March 2020, the US Copyright Office rejected for the second time a copyright claim for a work generated by an artificial intelligence (AI) system. The AI-generated work, submitted by Dr. Thaler, had previously been denied registration by the U…
US Copyright Office rejects first application of copyright request for artificial intelligence system
On 12 August 2019, a copyright claim for a work generated by an artificial intelligence (AI) system was denied registration by the US Copyright Office with the reason of a "lack of human authorship necessary to support a copyright claim". The artwor…