Although it is not as cool as described in science fiction movies, we have actually enjoyed a lot of the dividends of the times brought by artificial intelligence.
While AI is developing, AI products are not protected by law.
Who owns the copyright of AI robot creations?
Who owns the ownership of the AI ??robot-generated invention?
These intellectual property issues surrounding artificial intelligence have attracted much attention in various countries.
DABUS is an artificial intelligence system developed by Stephen Thaler, founder of the American company Imagination Engines. He invented two new technologies in one go, namely a fractal food container and a warning light that can attract greater attention.
Stephen Thaler
Since both inventions are DABUS's "own creativity," Stephen Thaler believes that DABUS should be recognized as the inventor, and he himself obtained the patent rights for the two technologies. .
However, when Stephen Thaler applied to the courts of the European Union and more than a dozen countries last year to list DABUS as the inventor of the patent, he was rejected, setting off a huge debate and court battle around the world.
Finally, South Africa became the first country to grant an artificial intelligence patent, recognizing the artificial intelligence robot DABUS as the "inventor". Subsequently, on August 6, the Federal Court of Australia also ruled that the inventor can be a non-human being.
The judgment clearly stated: The inventor is just an agent name. Perhaps only a person can be the owner of the patent, but it is a fallacy to say that the inventor can only be a person. And there is no law stating that patents cannot be filed without a human inventor.
This is the first time that an artificial intelligence system has been legally recognized as an inventor for patent applications.
Stephen Thaler’s legal team stated that their purpose is to test the boundaries of the patent system and promote reform of the patent system.
Objectively speaking, the current patent system mainly targets human inventors, hindering the patent registration of many artificial intelligence inventions, and also increasing the uncertainty of investing in AI.
Take Siemens as an example
In 2019, Siemens used artificial intelligence to develop a new car suspension system, but the patent application was rejected because the system was AI invented. Human engineers cannot list themselves as inventors because they cannot prove input into the invention process.
In the United States, if you fill in the wrong inventor when applying for a patent, you will be punished. Therefore, they hope that this case will promote the reform of the patent system and fully encourage people to develop artificial intelligence that can promote social innovation.
Can artificial intelligence become an inventor in the legal sense?
If it were in China, would you agree to the authorization?
Just last year, in the country’s first AI writing authorization case, the court held that the manuscript created by Tencent’s AI writing robot fell within the scope of copyright protection law.
However, according to my country’s current patent law, the inventor of a patent can only be a natural person in the legal sense. Regardless of the fact that artificial intelligence is not a legal natural person, given my country’s current efforts to crack down on abnormal patent applications, there is a high probability that artificial intelligence will not be recognized as a patent inventor.