Judge Signals That Artificial Intelligence Cannot Be Named As An Inventor In The United States

The ongoing artificial intelligence (“AI”) inventorship case of Thaler v. Iancu, et al. (No. 1:20-cv-00903) took another turn on April 6th when U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia signaled she may rule that AI systems cannot be listed as inventors on U.S. patent applications.  Plaintiff Dr. Stephen Thaler is the inventor of an AI system named “DABUS”, which went on to allegedly invent the subject-matter of two patent applications filed at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”).  Following the USPTO’s rejection of the applications on the grounds that the applications were deficient and an AI system cannot be listed as an inventor, Thaler filed a lawsuit against the USPTO in 2020.  It should be noted that both the USPTO and Thaler agree that Thaler himself apparently could not be listed as the inventor of the subject-matter of the patent applications.

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