NIPC Law

Nucleus of 103P/Hartley as imaged during a spacecraft flyby Author  NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD   Licence  Public Domain   Source  Wikimedia Commons Jane Lambert Patents Court (Michael Tappin KC) Thaler v The Co mptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks ( Re Permission to Appeal) [2025] EWHC 3072 (Ch) (21 Nov 2025) In Thaler v The Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Mark s [2025] EWHC 2202 (Ch) (1 Sept 2025), Mr Michael Tappin KC, sitting as a deputy judge of the High Court, dismissed an appeal by Dr Stephen Thaler ("Dr Thaler") against the decision of Mr Andrew Bushell in Thaler v Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks O/0764/24 of 24 Aug 2024.  I discussed that case in The Return of DABUS   on 7 Sept 2025. The case note summarizes the history of the litigation and links to other articles that I have written about DABUS ("Device for Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience") and the efforts of its...

Nucleus of 103P/Hartley as imaged during a spacecraft flyby Author NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD  Licence Public Domain  Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Patents Court (Michael Tappin KC)  Thaler v The Comptroller -General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks [2025] EWHC 2202 (Ch) (1 Sept 2025) DABUS stands for "Device for Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience".  According to its creator, Stephen Thaler , DABUS invented a new kind of food or beverage container and a new kind of light beacon and a new way of attracting attention in an emergency. Dr Thaler has tried to obtain patents for DABUS's inventions but he has not had much success outside South Africa. That is because most of the world's intellectual property offices , including our own, require an inventor to be a natural person.  I have written a lot of articles about DABUS and Dr Thaler's patent applications.  Readers are referred to Artificial Intelligence -The DABUS Decisions ,...

Author Dietary Rabich   Licence CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed   S ource Wikimedia Commons Jane Lambert Supreme Court  (Lords Hodge, Kitchin, Hamblen, Leggatt and Richards)   Thaler v Comptroller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks   [2023] UKSC 49 (20 Dec 2023) I mentioned the hearing of the appeal from the Court of Appeal's judgment in  Thaler v Comptroller General of Patents Trade Marks And Designs   [2021] RPC 19, [2022] Bus LR 375, [2021] EWCA Civ 1374 in DABUS in the Supreme Court   on 12 April 2023.  On 20 Dec 2023, the Supreme Court dismissed that appeal in  Thaler v Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Mark s [2023] UKSC 49.  The Court's judgment was delivered by Lord Kitchin. What This Appeal Was Not About In paras [48] and [49] of his judgment, Lord Kitchin said: "[48] The Comptroller has emphasised, correctly in my view, that this appeal is not concerned with the broader question whether technical advances gener...

Lord Kitchin* Jane Lambert Supreme Court (Lords Hodge, Kitchin, Hamblen, Leggatt and Richards) Thaler v Comptroller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks 2 March 2023 "DABUS" stands for "Device for Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience". It was created by Dr Stephen L Thaler . who has trained it to invent  a food container  and  devices and enhanced devices and methods for attracting enhanced attention .  Dr Thaler has applied for patents for those inventions in several countries including the UK His applications have been rejected by the European, British and American and most of the world's other patent offices on the ground that an inventor must be a natural person.  The only country in which he has been successful is South Africa (see the South African Patent Journal July 2021 Vol 54 No 07 ). There is a list of Patents and Applications   for those inventions   on The Artificial Inventor Project website. In the United Kingdom, Dr T...

Drachma Coin depicting the Automaton Talon Author Jastrow   Copyright Released by owner Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Court of Appeal (Lords Justices Arnold and Birss and Lady Justice Elisabeth Laing) Thaler v Comptroller of Patents, Trade Marks and Designs [2021] EWCA Civ 1374 (21 Sep 2021) This was an appeal by Dr Stephen Thaler against the decision of Mr Justice Marcus Smith in Thaler v The Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks [2020] EWHC 2412 (Pat) (21 Sept 2020) which I discussed in  Thaler v The Comptroller - The Patents Court decides whether Machines can be Inventors   on 22 Sept 2020.  Readers will recall that Mr Thaler has made a "creativity machine" called DABUS.  He alleged that DABUS had invented a Food Container and Devices and methods for obtaining advanced attention  which he applied to patent.  The Comptroller refused Dr Thaler's application and his decision was upheld by Mr Justice Marcus Smith....

Jane Lambert   Patents Court (Mr Justice Marcus Smith) Thaler v The Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks [2020] EWHC 2412 (Pat) (21 Sept 2020) DABUS was described by its owner, Dr Stephen Thaler, "as a type of 'Creativity Machine'".  I have mentioned it before in Artificial Intelligence - The DABUS Inventions   19 Feb 2020 and Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property   27 Dec 2019 NIPC News.  Dr Thaler claims that his machine has invented a Food Container  and Devices and methods for obtaining advanced attention .  Applications for patents for those inventions have been filed in the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Patent Office.  All three applications have been rejected on the grounds that an inventor must be a human being under the laws of the United Kingdom and the United States and the European Patent Convention. In Britain, Dr Thaler appealed to the Comptroller and his appeal was heard by Mr Huw...

Author   Alisneaky   Licence  CC BY-SA 4.0    Source  Wikipedia Artificial Neural Network Jane Lambert According to The Artificial Inventor Project website's FAQ page, "DABUS" stands for "Device for Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience".  The "About the Team"  page of the same website states that DABUS was created by Dr Stephen L Thaler .  Dr Thaler has applied for European patents for two inventions that were invented by DABUS, namely a food container (application number 18275163)  on 17 Oct 2018 and devices and enhanced devices and methods for attracting enhanced attention (application number 18275174)  on 7 Nov 2018. In  Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property   27 Dec 2019 I mentioned a press release dated 20 Dec 2019 stating that the EPO had refused those patent applications (see  EPO refuses DABUS patent applications designating a machine inventor   20 D...