Court upholds refusal to recognize AI as an inventor

A court on Monday upheld the Korean patent agency's refusal to recognize AI as an inventor, siding with its policy that only humans can be inventors. Korea became the first Asian country to deny AI’s patent rights following the decision.

Korean Intellectual Property Office Commissioner Lee In-sil speaks during a press conference at the government complex in Daejeon on Wednesday. [NEWS1]

A court on Monday upheld the Korean patent agency's refusal to recognize artificial intelligence (AI) as an inventor, siding with its policy that only humans can be inventors.

Korea became the first Asian country to deny AI’s patent rights following the decision.

Seoul Administrative Court ruled for the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) on Monday in a case filed to the court in December against the intellectual property agency for refusing to grant patent rights to a patent application that named an AI as the inventor.

U.S. AI developer Stephen Thaler applied for international patent rights for his AI “Dabus” in 2019, registering it as the inventor of two inventions that Thaler claimed Dabus created by itself. The patent application came to KIPO in May 2021 but failed to receive a nod from the agency.

The high courts of the United States, EU and Australia had all upheld their respective patent offices’ rejection of Dabus’ patent rights.

Dabus also had no luck in Britain and Germany, awaiting a final call from the British and German supreme courts after receiving red lights from the lower courts.

Despite rising victorious in the legal battle for the time being, KIPO is aware of a possible paradigm shift following in the heels of AI’s rapid development.

The U.S. Copyright Office in March released a policy statement concerning the copyrights of AI-made works.

“These technologies, often described as ‘generative AI,’ raise questions about whether the material they produce is protected by copyright, whether works consisting of both human-authored and AI-generated material may be registered, and what information should be provided to the Office by applicants seeking to register them,” the statement of policy read. “These are no longer hypothetical questions.”

KIPO will open an online forum on its website on July 20 to share ongoing discussions and decisions on AI authorship in the country and overseas and receive feedback from the public and industry.

A public poll will also begin that day to collect ideas on ways to modify the patent law. After the poll closes in September, an AI consultative group will be formed in October to lay the groundwork for change.

“KIPO plans to announce Korea’s stance on AI authorship at the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Standing Committee on the Law of Patents scheduled for October and at the 17th IP5 Heads of Office Meeting held in Korea next year,” KIPO Commissioner Lee In-sil said.

BY SOHN DONG-JOO [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]