Browsing by Subject "DABUS"

This thesis assesses the patentability of inventions generated by AI (AIGIs) through the inventive step requirement as per Article 56 of the European Patent Convention (EPC). This topic has been approached through one preliminary and two main research questions, to which the methods of legal-dogmatics as well as de lege ferenda have been applied. Despite being a current topic, conversations relating to AIGIs have been focused on the inventorship issue and other important elements of the relationship between AI, AIGIs and patent law, such as the inventive step requirement, have received less attention. As the inventive step is considered one of the more difficult areas of patent law, if not the most, a comfortable understanding of its basics as well as the operations of the European Patent Office (EPO) have been provided through the preliminary research question, which considers the patentability of AI inventions through the inventive step. The aim of the preliminary research question is to offer a clear understanding on the basics of the inventive step and its relationship to AI inventions as a means to create a foundation on which further discussion, analysis and interpretations of AIGIs can subsequently be built. The first main research question focuses on analysing the current relationship of AIGIs, the EPC and the inventive step. Despite the EPC requiring a human inventor, AIGIs have the capacity to access the patent system through various means: the current AIGIs require some form of human intervention in the inventive process and thus the human assisting the AI could be considered the inventor. All of this will be discussed under the first main research question and the relevancy of addressing the relationship with the inventive step requirement. The inventive step shall be analysed and discussed against the patent applications for inventions which were claimed to have been generated by an AI machine named DABUS. Under the second main research question, the future prospects of protecting AIGIs under the EPC shall be assessed through the inventive step requirement and discussion on how the requirement could be perhaps amended through standardisation to remain an effective tool in examining inventions which have been generated by evolving AI provided they become a part of the patent system. Other future possibilities of examining and protecting AIGIs are also discussed.