2019 saw many notable developments related to the patenting of
Artificial Intelligence (AI). Here, we provide a brief summary of
three key highlights: 1) the European Patent Office's decision
on whether an AI can be named as an inventor; 2) the development of
patent office policy on AI and the release of updated guidance
documents; and 3) the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO)
"Technology Trends" report providing data and analysis on
the global AI patent landscape.
AI Inventors – Coming to a Patent Office Near You?
On December 20, 2019 the European Patent Office (EPO) rejected
two European patent applications (EP3564144 and EP3563896) which
designated a connectionist AI named DABUS (short for "Device
for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience") as
being the sole inventor.
