CNIPA guidelines for patent applications for AI-related inventions

AI and inventorship

Can AI be an inventor?

Human named, AI help allowed

The inventor must be a natural person who made a creative contribution; AI cannot be named

Holding

The inventor named in an application must be a natural person who contributed creatively to the invention's substantive features; AI systems cannot be named, as they cannot hold civil rights. Fully AI-generated inventions have no eligible inventor, while AI-assisted inventions qualify where a person made a creative contribution.

China aligns with the human-inventor rule while keeping AI-assisted inventions patentable.

Principles it bears on

• SupportsOnly a natural person can be named as an inventor.

Sources

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