The United States Patent Office (USPTO) has said that AI cannot be listed as the owner of a patent, even if the AI has done all the hard work.
The owner of the patent must always be a human being, even if that human must have “significantly contributed” to the invention itself, the USPTO said in a new document registered in the Federal Register.
So if you own an AI that independently spits out a patentable design, you can’t claim ownership just because you invented the AI.
What exactly is human?
The document, titled “Inventorship Guidance for AI-assisted Inventions,” clarifies that while AI-assisted innovation is becoming increasingly common, the patenting process should be primarily attributed to humans, as it is humans who are incentivized and rewarded for filing a patent.
The document includes an important disclaimer noting that these guidelines “do not have the force and effect of law.” The document instead provides an interpretation of how AI-enabled patents might be filed in the future with regard to recent Supreme Court and Federal Circuit decisions.
At least one human must be named as the patent’s inventor, and that human can only claim credit for an AI-assisted invention if the human “takes over the output of an AI system and makes a significant contribution to the output to create an invention. .”
Therefore, simply giving an AI a goal or asking an AI to solve a problem does not count as ‘significant contribution’, nor does recognizing the potential usefulness of an AI-produced output ‘especially when the properties and usefulness of the output are clear to the consumer. those of ordinary skill.”
The document is based on the Biden administration’s AI executive order in October 2023, which recognizes how responsible AI will drive innovation, competition and collaboration for companies of all sizes.
This guidance is therefore not an attempt to limit the use of AI, but instead seeks to provide an interpretation of how responsible AI-enabled innovation should be regulated and rewarded.
Through TechCrunch