EUROPEAN PATENT – ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND DESIGNATION OF THE INVENTOR
In accordance with the provisions of article 81 of the European Patent Convention, “the European patent application must include the designation of the inventor”.
It is on the delicate issue of the “inventor” as a subject of rights that the Legal Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office, the first and last jurisdictional instance before the European Patent Office (EPO), issued a decision on December 21, 2021 during a public oral procedure.
Indeed, the inventor named in two European patent applications (EP 18 275 163 and EP 18 275 174) was not a human being (legally a natural person), but an artificial intelligence system.
In dismissing the applicant’s appeals, The Boards of Appeal confirmed the decisions of the European Patent Office’s Filing Section, namely that an artificial intelligence (AI) system cannot be designated as an inventor.
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