DABUS
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DABUS is an AI system developed by Stephen Thaler and named as the inventor in patent applications that tested whether a machine can qualify as an inventor. The Federal Circuit identifies its expanded name as Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Science. Thaler asserted that it generated the inventions without his contribution to their conception.[1]
Patent-inventorship litigation
In July 2019, Thaler filed U.S. applications for a neural-flame invention and a fractal container, naming DABUS as the sole inventor. In Thaler v. Vidal, the Federal Circuit held on August 5, 2022 that the Patent Act requires a human inventor. Ryan Abbott argued Thaler's appeal. The court expressly left AI-assisted human invention outside the question it decided.[1]
The UK Supreme Court dismissed a parallel appeal on December 20, 2023. It held that an inventor under the Patents Act 1977 must be a natural person and that owning DABUS did not, by itself, give Thaler entitlement to a patent. The applications were treated as withdrawn because the statutory requirements had not been met.[2]
Legal significance and limits
The UK decision addressed the existing statute, rather than whether autonomous machine-generated advances should receive patent protection as a policy matter. The proceedings took Thaler's asserted facts as their starting point; they were not an independent technical demonstration of DABUS's inventive capabilities.[2]
The separate copyright litigation concerns the name Creativity Machine and the picture A Recent Entrance to Paradise. That appellate record addresses authorship under copyright law rather than inventorship under patent law.[3]
Related articles
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Federal Circuit, Thaler v. Vidal, No. 21-2347, August 5, 2022. Accessed September 12, 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 UK Supreme Court, Thaler v Comptroller-General, official press summary, December 20, 2023. Accessed September 12, 2026.
- ↑ D.C. Circuit, Thaler v. Perlmutter, No. 23-5233, March 18, 2025. Accessed September 12, 2026.