UK Court Prohibits Granting Patents for Inventions Created by Artificial Intelligence
Computer science expert Stephen Thaler has been unsuccessful in obtaining patents for his inventions developed by his proprietary artificial intelligence system, referred to as the "creativity machine" DABUS. His attempts to register two patents (for a food container and a lantern) were rejected by the UK Intellectual Property Office, and the country's Supreme Court dismissed the inventor's appeal, as reported by Reuters.
Thaler's application was declined on the grounds that "an inventor must be a person or a company, not a machine." Thaler appealed to the Supreme Court, which also rejected it with a similar rationale.
In a written decision, Judge David Kitchin noted that this case "does not address the broader question of whether technical achievements created by autonomous machines operating with artificial intelligence should be patentable."
Thaler's attorneys remarked that this decision underscores the inadequacy of the country's patent law in protecting inventions created by autonomous AI systems. They also emphasized that the current patent legislation is insufficient to support industries relying on AI in the development of new technologies.
The UK Intellectual Property Office welcomed the decision and its clarification, stating that it "clarifies the law regarding the patenting of inventions by artificial intelligence." Earlier this year, Thaler faced a similar outcome in the United States, where the Supreme Court declined to review his appeal against the US Patent and Trademark Office's refusal to grant patents for inventions created by AI systems.
Additionally, it's worth mentioning that the Ukrainian short film "Christmas Ghost" secured the third position in the AI Holiday Film Contest, a competition for the three best films created using artificial intelligence, with over 140 entries. The film tells the story of a Ukrainian volunteer celebrating Christmas alone and encountering a Christmas ghost. The two-minute and 40-second film earned its creator a prize of a thousand dollars, free enrolment in an AI filmmaking course, and a festive Christmas jumper.
In his work, the author utilized various tools based on neural networks, including Midjourney for generating 2D images, Runway Gen 2 for animating 2D images, ElevenLabs for creating AI-generated sound, D-ID for facial animation, and DALL-E 3 and PixVerse as auxiliary tools.