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 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 ,...

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...