Artificial Intelligence And Inventorship Under U.S. Patent Law

In recent years, the capabilities of, and applications involving, artificial intelligence ("AI") have dramatically increased, so much so that AI systems are now able to produce works of creativity and ingenuity once thought only to be possible through human efforts. The U.S. Copyright Office has already wrestled with the question of whether creative works authored by AI are eligible for federal copyright protection and determined that they are not in an opinion letter dated February 14, 2022. However, the question of whether an invention in which an AI system is the sole inventive entity can receive patent protection under U.S. law still remained. The Federal Circuit has now answered this question in Thaler v. Vidal with an unequivocal "No, it cannot."