Japan High Court upholds rejection of AI as inventor in patent case
10 February 2025
The Intellectual Property High Court of Japan remained committed to upholding the Tokyo District Court’s decision to dismiss a claim by a U.S. engineer that the Japan Patent Office should rescind their rejection of his patent application, which named the artificial intelligence (AI) he developed as the inventor.
Presiding judge Hibiki Shimizu denied the appeal, who said in the decision that “Inventors are limited to natural persons.”
The verdict states that the engineer named the creator “DABUS, the artificial intelligence that autonomously invented this invention” in his patent application for a food container and other goods. DABUS stands for Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience. Nevertheless, the application was denied by the Japan Patent Office.
In the litigation, the plaintiff said that even if an AI system created the innovation, it is still feasible to file for a patent. The high court responded by ruling that AI creations cannot be considered to have the right to seek a patent under the patent law, which states that the right to obtain a patent only exists when the creator is a human.
The high court declared that laws based on the social effect of AI breakthroughs must be examined and that “the system design of patent rights should be discussed from the perspective of national industrial policy.” “It is difficult to deal with this issue through interpreting current laws,” the statement added.
“This is a significant legal and social issue that could also affect the direction of technological innovation,” the plaintiff’s lawyer said, following the decision. “We want to take the matter to the Supreme Court.”
According to the Japan Patent Office, the decision was upheld.
- Excel V. Dyquiangco
