Karimi & Associates Law Firm presents according to Guardian:
An artificial intelligence system is capable of being an “inventor” under Australian patent law, the federal court has stated, in a decision that could have wider intellectual property implications.
In a federal court judgment on Friday, justice Jonathan Beach overturned a decision made by an Australian deputy commissioner of patents regarding that AI systems can not be considered as inventors, the matter has been sent back to the commission for reconsideration.
Judge Beach has stated that a non-human inventor could not be the applicant of a patent, and the owner of the system would be the owner of any patents that would be granted on inventions by artificial intelligence systems.
To clarify his decision, the judge has also added that there needed to be a consideration beyond the mere dictionary definition of “inventor” as being a human and considered the decision “consistent with the reality of the current technology.”
Regarding this matter, Australian patent attorney Dr. Mark Summerfield said Friday’s ruling would probably be appealed because it could have broad implications for patents in Australia.
“A recognition in Australian law that the term ‘inventor’ can encompass a machine would not only be well ahead of the dictionaries, it would also be ahead of any significant usage of the word in this way in society at large, or even among qualified experts in the field,” he said.
“Allowing machine inventors could have numerous consequences, both foreseeable and unforeseeable. Allowing patents for inventions churned out by tireless machines with virtually unlimited capacity, without the further exercise of any human ingenuity, judgment, or intellectual effort, may simply incentivise large corporations to build ‘patent thicket generators’ that could only serve to stifle, rather than encourage, innovation overall.”