The European Patent Office has rejected Dr. Stephen Thaler's patent application, emphasizing that inventors under European patent law must be natural persons, reinforcing Article 81 of the EPC.
The EPO's decision highlights the interconnectedness of Articles 81 and 60(1) of the EPC, which requires the inventor to be a natural person and capable of holding patent rights.
Despite the argument that AI-generated inventions can be patentable, the EPO has maintained that the designation of an inventor must strictly be a human being.
The EPO's Legal Board of Appeal clarified that the term 'inventor' must be interpreted in its ordinary sense—this precludes the possibility of designating an AI as an inventor.
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