Thaler v. Vidal, No. 21-2347 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 5, 2022)

From the Opinion

The passage below is extracted verbatim from the opening of the document. It has not been editorially summarized — consult the full opinion for the court's complete reasoning.

This case presents the question of who, or what, can be an inventor. Specifically, we are asked to decide if an arti- ficial intelligence (AI) software system can be listed as the inventor on a patent application. At first, it might seem that resolving this issue would involve an abstract inquiry into the nature of invention or the rights, if any, of AI sys- tems. In fact, however, we do not need to ponder these met- aphysical matters. Instead, our task begins – and ends – with consideration of the applicable definition in the rele- vant statute.