Australia: Full Court overturns decision and rules that artificial intelligence (AI) system cannot be an ‘inventor’ on a patent [Thaler v Commissioner of Patents FCA 879]

On 13 April 2022, the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia overturned a decision made on 30 July 2021 in Thaler v Commissioner of Patents FCA 879 that an artificial intelligence (AI) system can be named as an inventor on a patent application. With this decision, Full Court found that an AI system cannot be named as an inventor based on the underlying assumption in Australia's patent law was that the inventor was "a natural person whose ingenuity was to be rewarded by a grant of monopoly over their invention" and inventors historically had human attributes.