On November 25, 2019, the European Patent Office has rejected
two patent applications (EP 18 275 163 and EP 18 275 174) that
designated an artificial intelligence named "DABUS" as
the sole inventor. The applicant stated that DABUS is "a type
of connectionist artificial intelligence" and that they
acquired the right to the European patent from DABUS by being its
successor in title. But, both applications have been refused for
failure to comply with the formal EPC provision regarding the
designation of inventor and now, EPO has published its reasons to refuse
them.
According to the EPO, when a machine is designated as inventor,
the requirements of Article 81 and Rule 19(1) EPC have not been
met, because Rule 19(1) EPC requires designation of inventorship to
comprise a family name, given names and full address of the
inventor and name of DABUS cannot be equated with names of natural
persons. EPO stated: "Names given to natural persons, whether
composed of a given name
