On April 27, 2020, the United States Patent and Trademark Office
published a petition decision stating that under current law, only
natural persons may be named as an inventor in a patent
application. The agency's decision stems from the
USPTO's rejection of a U.S. patent application that listed an
autonomous entity, named DABUS, as the inventor. DABUS stands
for “Device Autonomously Bootstrapping Uniform
Sensibility” and is a “Creativity Machine” that
uses neural networks to generate new
inventions. The decision is available on
the Artificial Intelligence page and
the Final Decisions by the Commissioner for
Patents page of the USPTO website.
This USPTO statement is consistent with the EPO's position
as articulated in its reasons for rejecting two European DABUS
patent applications on January 27, 2020. The two DABUS applications
were refused by the EPO following oral proceedings with the
applicant in November 2019, on the grounds that they do not meet
the legal
