ABSTRACT
The human inventorship requirement in patent applications has its origin in mercantilism: governments around Europe were trying to attract the best craftsmen to their jurisdiction through the promise of exclusivity on their inventions; so, the patents were personal and required the inventor to be in residence in the jurisdiction to exercise such rights. While the residency requirement disappeared, the human inventorship requirement persisted. The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) machines has challenged the belief that only humans could be creative. Indirectly, this rise has challenged whether machine-generated inventions should receive the same protection as human generated inventions. This chapter discusses whether legal theories support removing the human inventorship requirement. This chapter investigates whether the incentive theory, personality theory, labor theory, and social planning theory – four common theories used to justify the existence of the intellectual property system – could justify a reform of the human inventorship requirement. This discussion finds that these theories provide little support to granting a right of attribution to AI-machines.
Gabison, Garry, The Soul of Inventorship in the Patent System (January 31, 2024). Available at SSRN:
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