Machine Inventorship

'Thaler v Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks'[2023] UKSC 49; [2024] 2 All E.R. 527-the only patent case to reach the UK Supreme Court (UKSC) in 2023 and one of the last to feature Lord Kitchin prior to his retirement-concerned the issue of computer-generated inventions. In its judgment, delivered on 20 December 2023, the court considered three questions: first, whether artificial intelligence (AI) can be designated as "inventor" for the purposes of the Patents Act 1977; secondly, whether the applicant, Dr Stephen Thaler, was the owner of any invention made by his AI system and entitled to apply for a patent in respect of it; and, thirdly, whether the hearing officer's initial decision to withdraw the application was correct. Focusing on the 'meaning' of the Act, the court dismissed the appeal and refused to depart from a textualist and anthropocentric interpretation of inventorship.