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ARTICLE · 21 FEBRUARY 2022

2021 Year In Review: Artificial Intelligence – Part 1

Smart & Biggar
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In 2021, COVID-19 continued to be the most popular topic of discussion. Despite its persistence and continued impact on our lives however, the pandemic has not put a damper on innovation and progress.

GlobalIntellectual Property
Reshika Dhir
Reshika Dhir
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In 2021, COVID-19 continued to be the most popular topic of discussion. Despite its persistence and continued impact on our lives however, the pandemic has not put a damper on innovation and progress.

In this two-part series, we highlight some of the year's most important developments at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Intellectual Property (IP).

In this article, we look at the recent developments on the topic of AI and inventorship across the globe. In the second part of this series, we will look at latest developments in patentability of AI-based inventions in Canada.

AI and Inventorship

2021 was a very interesting year for the topic of AI and inventorship. Though the United States (the U.S.) and the United Kingdom (the UK) continued to hold that an AI cannot be named as an inventor for a patent, South Africa became the first jurisdiction to grant a patent to an AI inventor while Australia became the first to judicially recognize a

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