An artificial intelligence system was denied the right to two patents in the United States, after a sentence that only "natural persons" could have been inventors.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office dismissed two patents in which the Dabus artificial intelligence system was listed as the inventor, in a ruling Monday.
The United States patent law had previously specified that only eligible inventors were to be "individuals".
A similar ruling by the UK Intellectual Property Office follows.
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Dabus designed:
- easy-to-grasp interlocking food containers for robots
- a light that flashes with a rhythm that is difficult to ignore
And his creator, physicist and artificial intelligence researcher Stephen Thaler, had argued that since he hadn't helped him with inventions, it would have been incorrect to list himself as an inventor.
But the patent offices insist that innovations are attributed to humans, to avoid legal complications that could arise if corporate inventories were recognized.
Some academics, however, have previously suggested that this should no longer be applied.
"Problems not tested"
The European Patent Office has witnessed a wave of claims based on artificial intelligence, according to Penny Gilbert, specialist in intellectual property law at Powell Gilbert LLP.
"Artificial intelligence is a rapidly evolving field destined to revolutionize many industries and raises many untested problems regarding the patentability and ownership of inventions that are made using it," he told BBC News.
"The rulings made clear that an artificial intelligence cannot be named as an inventor, but can still be challenged.
"The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has launched a consultation on this issue and is expected to continue the discussion in a session in mid-May, with the result that it should influence future intellectual property policy."
