Background
Stephen Thaler appealed after the USPTO refused his patent applications naming DABUS as inventor. The Federal Circuit affirmed the refusal, holding that the Patent Act requires inventors to be “individuals,” which means human beings.
AI interaction
‘The Patent Act requires that inventors must be natural persons; that is, human beings.’ The ruling settled the issue at appellate level in the US, confirming that AI systems cannot qualify as inventors under current US patent law.
Note: DABUS (Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Science) is an AI system created by Stephen Thaler. Thaler pursued parallel test cases worldwide, naming DABUS as inventor to challenge the limits of patent law. Courts and offices in the UK, EPO, Australia and USA all reached the same outcome: only humans can be inventors under current law.