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News and commentary on IP issues

UK Patentability for Artificial Intelligence

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The UK High Court has issued an important ruling in Emotional Perception AI Ltd v Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, overruling the UK IPO and deciding that trained artificial neural networks (ANNs) do not fall under the "program for a computer" exclusion of section 1(2)(c) of the Patents Act 1977. The UK I...
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UK Supreme Court Judgement on DABUS as an inventor

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Today, 20th December 2023, the UK Supreme Court has handed down its judgment in this case, dismissing Dr Thaler's appeal. On the Issue of Patentability The UK Supreme Court has held that: "…DABUS, a machine with no legal personality, is not and has never been an inventor within the meaning of the 1977 Act. This is more than a formal objection.It go...
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DABUS at the UK's Supreme Court - inventorship of AI created inventions to be decided

Supreme Court of United Kingdom
On 2 March 2023, Robert Jehan and Dr Ryan Abbott will appear before the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom to argue that the Patents Act 1977 can permit the granting of patents for the DABUS patent applications. The appellant, Dr Thaler, created an Artificial Intelligence (AI) machine known as DABUS that in turn, in the absence of a traditional hu...
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EPO Board of Appeal Decision J0008/20 on AI Inventor DABUS - Commentary by Robert Jehan

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On 6 July 2022 the European Patent Office's Legal Board of Appeal published its reasoned decision J0008/20 explaining why it refused Dr Thaler's appeal at the end of the oral proceedings held on 21 December 2021. The decision establishes very important principles in law in relation to the patentability of inventions created by AI systems, that...
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4177 Hits

Williams Powell wins MIP award of European Cross-Border Patent Litigation Team

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We are delighted to announce that Williams Powell was presented with the special award of European Cross-Border Patent Litigation Team of the Year for the Stephen Thaler v Comptroller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (DABUS) case at the prestigious Managing IP Awards on 15 June 2022. Williams Powell was recognised for the work of Robert ...
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UK Court of Appeal judgment on the DABUS AI as inventor appeal

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On 21 September 2021 the Court of Appeal handed down its judgment in THALER v COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF PATENTS TRADE MARKS AND DESIGNS [2021] EWCA Civ 1374. The Court of Appeal, in a split 2/1 decision dismissed Dr Thaler's appeal. Lord Justice Arnold held in his judgment that there is no rule of law that a new intangible produced by existing ta...
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DABUS the AI system confirmed as the inventor and Dr Stephen Thaler as the owner of the DABUS inventions

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Today a second country has confirmed that DABUS, an artificial intelligence system, can be named as the inventor in a patent and that Dr Stephen Thaler as the rightful owner of the DABUS inventions. Following from patent applications filed by Williams Powell, first in the United Kingdom and at the European Patent Office, then by way of an inte...
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3868 Hits

Breaking News - DABUS granted Right to Appeal UK Judgement

We are delighted that the UK Court of Appeal has today granted Dr Thaler the right to appeal the DABUS decision, which involves the important issue of patentability of inventions created by AI systems. Williams Powell is handling the DABUS patent applications as well as the UK and EPO appeals. The cases had been rejected by the UK High Court. The o...
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UK IPO Calls for Views on Patents for AI Inventions

We have previously written about our involvement in filing and prosecuting patent applications for two inventions created by the AI inventor DABUS, and naming DABUS (the true deviser of the inventions) as the inventor.The UK IPO found the inventions to be both novel and inventive, and therefore, in principle, protectable by patent.  ...
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2636 Hits