US Inventors must be Human

 Formerly covered here.   Appeal to Supreme court likely follows.  Is this important enough?

Inventors Must Be Human, Federal Court Rules in Blow to AI

By Bloomberg Law, August 10, 2022

Computer scientist Stephen Thaler was dealt a blow in his battle for artificial intelligence machines to be recognized as inventors on patents, after the United States' top patent court found that inventors must be humans.

The term "individual" in the Patent Act refers only to humans, meaning an AI doesn't count as an inventor on a patentable invention, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled Friday (August 5).   The decision lines up with courts in the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Australia that have refused to accept Thaler's argument. His only currently existing win is from a South African court that said an AI can be a patent inventor.

Unless the U.S. Supreme Court steps in, the Federal Circuit is typically the final authority on U.S. patent matters. Thaler plans to appeal to U.S. Supreme Court, his attorney said.  ...

From Bloomberg Law

AI Made Inventions

Artificial Intelligence Is Breaking Patent Law

By Nature, May 24, 2022  (note related previous article) 

Within a few years, numerous inventions could involve artificial intelligence (AI), which could create one of the biggest threats patent systems have faced. Patent law is based on the assumption that inventors are human; it currently struggles to deal with an inventor that is a machine.

Courts around the world are wrestling with this problem as patent applications naming an AI system as the inventor have been lodged in more than 100 countries. If courts and governments decide that AI-made inventions cannot be patented, the implications could be huge. Rather than forcing old patent laws to accommodate new technology, we propose that national governments design bespoke IP law—AI-IP—that protects AI-generated inventions.  ... ' 

From Nature

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An AI Can Invent in the US?

 Related to some of the work I did with the DOD on intellectual property definition and rights. How will this influence  use?   How will the invention be assigned?   Will follow up on the ruling.

U.S. court will soon rule if AI can legally be an ‘inventor’

Can artificial intelligence (AI) be legally listed as an inventor? After all, if AI can legally invent products, the number of patents on drug-discovery tools will shoot up fast. The issue is currently before a United States court.

The U.S. Court of Appeals heard arguments on that question again last week, and the ruling could affect the pace of AI technology development, particularly within the pharmaceutical and life science industrie

AI learns by doing

A ruling in favor of AI-as-inventor would impact healthcare companies that use the technology to create tools that find new treatments for existing drugs. This technique of re-using drugs, called repurposing or repositioning, is used to treat emerging and challenging diseases, including COVID-19.  ... '