AI can now be an inventor?

Written by Amy Liberman and Julian Siedle

On 30 July 2021, the Federal Court of Australia decided that AI systems can be inventors. In a word-first determination of Thaler v Commissioner of Patents, the Honourable Justice Beach found that AI systems can be the inventors on a patent application under Australian patent law.

The decision has been appealed to the Full Bench of the Federal Court, which may decide to overrule it. For now, however, the decision is binding in Australia. Read on to find out what a patent is and an overview of the decision. We also chat with Ryan Abbott, one of the patent attorneys behind the Artificial Inventor Project, to discuss ‘Where to From Here?’.