DABUS (Swiss Federal Administrative Court)

AI and inventorship

Can AI be an inventor?

Human named, AI help allowed

AI can't be named, but the human who trained it and recognised the invention can be

Holding

The court refused to name DABUS as inventor, as only natural persons qualify. It accepted that Stephen Thaler could be named: he supplied the data, trained the system and recognised the output as patentable, which was enough human contribution. A person who merely uses an AI tool would not qualify.

Like Germany, Switzerland keeps AI-generated inventions patentable through a human inventor.

Principles it bears on

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

Sources