Federal Court of Australia
Federal Court of Australia Commissioner of Patents v Thaler [2022] FCAFC 62 Appeal from: Thaler v Commissioner of Patents [2021] FCA 879
File number: VID 496 of 2021
Judgment of: ALLSOP CJ, NICHOLAS, YATES, MOSHINSKY AND BURLEY JJ
Date of judgment: 13 April 2022
Catchwords: PATENTS – artificial intelligence – where Patents Regulations 1991 (Cth) require name of the inventor to be provided in application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty – where patent application named DABUS, an artificial intelligence machine, as inventor – where parties agreed that the invention described in the patent application was the output of the process undertaken by DABUS – where Deputy Commissioner of Patents determined that patent application did not comply with Patents Regulations – where primary judge set aside decision of Deputy Commissioner – concept of "inventor" under the Patents Act 1990 (Cth) – whether inventor must be a natural person – relationship between inventor and person entitled to be granted a patent – appeal allowed
Legislation: Constitution s 51(xviii) Acts Interpretation Act 1901 (Cth) ss 2(1), 2C, 15AA Patents Act 1903 (Cth) s32(2) Patents Act 1952 (Cth) s 34(1) Patents Act 1990 (Cth) ss 2A, 13, 14, 15, 29, 29A, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 45, 49, 59, 64(2)(a), 101B(2), 101E(1) 113, 138, 172, 182, 188, sch 1 Patents Regulations 1991 (Cth) reg 3.1A, 3.2C, 3.2C(2)(aa), 3.18(2)(a)(i), 3.18(2)(f) Statute of Monopolies 1624 (21 Jac c 3) s 6 Blackstone's Commentaries of the Laws of England (Clarendon Press, Book 2, 1766) Explanatory Memorandum, Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Productivity Commission Response Part 2 and other Measures) Bill 2019 (Cth) Explanatory Memorandum, Patents Bill 1989 (Cth) Explanatory Statement, Select Legislative Instrument No. 88, 2015 Hindmarch, The Law Relating to Patents (1846) Industrial Property Advisory Committee (1984) Patents, Innovation and Competition in Australia: a report to the Hon. Barry O. Jones, MP, Minister for Science and Technology, 29 August 1984 Terrell, T, Terrell C, Jones JR, Terrell on the Law of Patents (8th ed, Sweet & Maxwell, London, 1934)
We try to embed the page this law was scraped from. If the site blocks framing, you still get the link and a local excerpt.
Last checked with source on —
Checking whether the official page can be embedded…
Plain-English simplify of this law: a short summary, key points, and both sides of the argument. Generated on first view via Replicate, then cached. Vote on what helps your study.
No study brief is cached for this law yet. Sign up to generate a plain-English brief.
Sign up to generate