Yesterday, the Legal Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) announced its eagerly awaited decision on appeals J8/20 and J9/20. It confirmed the view of the EPO that patent applications should be refused in which an artificial intelligence system was designated as inventor. The Board of Appeal also rejected the auxiliary request, according to which the owner and creator of the artificial intelligence system was indicated to have the right to the European patent.
At the end of the oral proceedings on December 21, 2021, the Legal Board of Appeal gave a few insights into its reasons for the decision: Under the EPC, the inventor had to be a person with legal capacity, thus a natural person. Therefore, a machine could not have the right to a European patent according to Art. 61 EPC.
These newly announced decisions now define further guard rails in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). However, there are still open questions in the patenting of AI, e.g. artificial neural networks, so a competent partner is needed to successfully handle such cases. MSP has extensive experience in this technical and legal area in order to provide our clients with optimal support.
If you have any questions about AI cases, please do not hesitate to contact us.