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ARTICLE · 27 APRIL 2022

Is an inventor necessarily human? Or could it be an artificial intelligence system as well? Which case won?

Stacks Law Firm
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The question for determination was whether under the Commonwealth Patents Act an AI system could be an inventor.

AustraliaIntellectual Property
Emma Wei
Emma Wei
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The Facts

Applicant applies for patent for invention invented by AI system

An applicant submitted a patent application for a new food container that is easy for robots to grasp and stack.

The patent application required that the applicant provide the name of the inventor of this invention.

The applicant named the artificial intelligence system that autonomously generated the invention, as the inventor.

The applicant was the owner of the AI system and the operator of the computer on which it operates. He also wrote the programs used by the AI system and owned the copyright in its source code.

Deputy Commissioner of Patents rejects patent application and applicant seeks judicial review

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