United Kingdom: Issued Supreme Court ruling in lawsuit concerning the classification of AI as an inventor (Thaler v Comptroller General)

On 20 December 2023, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom dismissed an appeal concerning the patentability of technical advances generated by an Artificial Intelligence (AI) machine, DABUS. The ruling addresses the interpretation and application of the Patents Act 1977 provisions. The Court held that an inventor, as defined by the 1977 Act, must be a natural person. The appellant, Dr Thaler, who is the owner of DABUS, failed to satisfy the requirements of the Act as he could not identify any person that he believed to be the inventor or inventors of the inventions described in the applications. Further, the ruling specifies that Dr Thaler’s ownership of DABUS did not provide a proper basis for accepting his claim to be entitled to the grant of the patents for which he had applied. Previously, in October and November 2018, Dr Thaler submitted two patent applications (GB18116909.4 and GB1818161.0) seeking patents for innovative devices and methods. The applications identified DABUS as the inventor, and Dr Thaler argued that he has the right to file the applications based on his ownership of DABUS. The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) considered the applications withdrawn, citing Dr Thaler's non-compliance with section 13(2) of the Patents Act 1977, which requires the identification of the person believed to be the inventor and clarification on the right to apply for the invention. The IPO's decision was appealed to the High Court and subsequently upheld by the Court of Appeal and now the Supreme Court.