Since patent regimes around the world are primarily designed to reward “human” innovation, such norms may need to be revisited for the purpose of protecting inventions that are generated by artificial intelligence (“AI”).
In most jurisdictions, existing patent laws contemplate an “inventor” to (only) mean a natural person. Further, recent authoritative interpretations have been reluctant to extend the concept of inventorship to AI systems.
However, with the growing use of AI, modern technology has arrived at an inflection point where an AI algorithm can play a determinative role in the inventive process. Accordingly, the question of granting patents to AI-generated inventions has assumed additional importance, including in terms of incentivizing innovation and investments into future AI models.
Subject to new developments and priorities, legislators may want to consider options such as amending extant patent regimes, introducing a bespoke framework especially for AI-generated inventions, allowing human beings to be named as inventors to the extent of their involvement in the use or development of the AI system concerned, or even doing away with the requirement of naming an inventor for AI-generated inventions.
