Can AI hold patents?

  WIPO announced draft of the patent right of AI,

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) initiated an open consultation process on AI intellectual property policy in December of last year and requested comments from member countries. The draft created by WIPO was about giving intellectual property ownership to AI itself, not to companies that have the AI technologies. If the technology created by AI is registered as a patent, the owner becomes AI, not an AI technology holder or inventor.

🔺 flickr.com © mikemacmarketing

  Comments on the WIPO draft,

Since the announcement of the draft, it has been reported that members of 100 companies in about 22 countries have sent their opinions to the WIPO. Intel has submitted that intellectual property inventors should not be allowed to be named AI, and that inventors must be absolutely human. Philips also strongly opposed saying that it should not recognize patents on development products based on AI technology. As such, most companies seem to have expressed opposition to the WIPO’s draft. On the other hand, there were opinions of IT experts and scientists that AI, not a company / institution with AI technology, should have intellectual property rights. It is insisting that the system should be changed in line with the new era.

🔺 WIPO.int

   Several precedents on AI programs,

AI developer Stephen Thaler developed the AI-invented program “Dabus,” which expands neural networks and creates new ideas. In 2018, the Dabus research team filed a patent for two technologies invented by Dabus to the Intellectual Property Office (GOV.UK), the European Patent Office (EPO), and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In January, the EPO rejected that the technologies invented by Dabus because the technology met the requirements of the patent, but that the machine could not replace the inventor under the European Patent Convention. On the other hand, a court in Shenzhen City, China, recently filed a copyright infringement on Shanghai's Yingxun Science and Technology for the unauthorized use of articles written by AI program Dream writer. Dream writer is an article writing system developed by Tencent in 2015. Although it was a damage judgment of US$250 , the Chinese court recognized the AI ​​program as the subject of the work. Due to this, it is still controversial a lot.

🔺 wipsglobal.com
<Dabus' patent>

  In the new era, will AI be able to hold patent rights?

Controversy continues over the earlier comments, saying that AI should be patented, as in Europe and China. It may be that the world has advanced one step as much as this controversy. It seems necessary to think seriously about how far the role and position of AI should be allowed in a changing era. If AI becomes a patent holder, it is necessary to prepare for the fundamental problems that may arise.