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RandomFactor [soylentnews.org] writes:

The European Patent Office has rejected two patent applications filed on behalf of an AI [dailymail.co.uk] by researchers. The AI is named DABUS ('device for the autonomous bootstrapping of unified sentience'),

DABUS created two unique, usable ideas that were submitted to [the] patent office: the first was a new kind of beverage container; and the second was a signal device to help search and rescue teams locate a target.

One of the researchers, Ryan Abbot of the University of Surrey, argues that this should have been handled differently

‘If I teach my Ph.D. student that and they go on to make a final complex idea, that doesn’t make me an inventor on their patent, so it shouldn’t with a machine,’ he said in October.

He believes the best approach would be to credit the AI as the inventor of the patents, and then credit the AI’s human owner as the assignee given license to make decisions about the patent or draw benefit from it.

The EPO rejected the patent applications on the grounds that "there was no human inventor." This is a constraint built into European Copyright law, but until now not part of European Patent law.

Also at Techdirt [techdirt.com]

Original Submission