In 2022, a US appeals court in Washington, DC, ruled that an AI system called DABUS could not be listed as an inventor because US statutes define an inventor as an 'individual,' meaning a human being.
Notes on verification
Confirmed by multiple independent legal-industry sources describing the Federal Circuit's August 2022 ruling; the reasoning, statutory basis, and outcome all align with the claim.
Sources
- MIT Technology Review (technologyreview.com)
- https://www.morganlewis.com/pubs/2022/08/us-federal-circuit-artificial-intelligence-machine-is-not-an-inventor (morganlewis.com)
- https://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/patent/1221066/federal-circuit-confirms-39inventor39-must-be-human-not-ai (mondaq.com)
- https://journals.law.umn.edu/mjlst/2022/10/26/only-humans-are-allowed-federal-circuit-says-no-to-ai-inventors (journals.law.umn.edu)