Japan’s Supreme Court rules that AI cannot be listed as an inventor in patent applications

The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by an American engineer seeking to name artificial intelligence as an inventor in a patent application.

The engineer had argued that the patent office’s rejection of the application was illegal. However, in Wednesday’s ruling, the court’s Second Petty Bench rejected the engineer’s request to reverse the refusal.

The Supreme Court’s ruling dismissed the plaintiff’s claim and confirmed the Tokyo District Court and Intellectual Property High Court’s ruling that inventors under the Patent Act are limited to “natural persons.”

According to the rulings of both lower courts, in 2020, the plaintiff applied for food containers and other items invented by the artificial intelligence “DABUS” created by the plaintiff. The plaintiff listed the inventor’s name as “DABUS, the artificial intelligence that autonomously invented this invention.” The Patent Office ordered the plaintiff to reveal the name of the person as the inventor. The plaintiff refused and the application was dismissed.

In this lawsuit, the plaintiff argued that “patent applications should be allowed even for inventions created by AI.” However, the district court held that patent law “presumes that the inventor is a natural person.” The High Court upheld this position.

The high court also said the law did not anticipate the rapid development of AI, and that answering the question of whether inventions created by AI should be granted patent rights “requires debate given their impact on society.”