Only a human can be listed as an inventor on European patent applications, an appeal board said, the latest decision in a global test case to recognize a computer as an inventor.
Stephen Thaler, a computer scientist from Missouri, built an AI “creativity machine” called DABUS, which Thaler says invented a food container and a light beacon. He was appealing decisions from the European Patent Office refusing patent applications that named DABUS as the inventor.
The European Patent Convention sets out the system for European patents. Under the EPC, a patent application must designate an inventor.
And the inventor must ...