[clug] Fwd: [OT] AI news: AI system that came up with novel designs, named as 'Author' of a patent

[Brenton Ross]

I am inclined to agree with the Australian judge.

Consider this hypothetical:

I work for a company and the boss asks me for something to perform some
task. I go and think about it for a while and devise a suitable gadget.
It gets patented, and I am named as its author.

Alternatively, I feed a few parameters into some software and it
devises the design for the gadget using processing and knowledge that I
don't have. The company can still patent it, but who is the author? I
can hardly claim any credit as I did not have the know how to create
the design myself. For some AI software there may not be any human with
the ability to perform the task.

It makes no sense to grant the company or any of its employees
authorship as none of them know how the design was arrived at. 

If we nominate the AI software authorship then at least some credit for
the design can be attributed to the authors of the software, but not
for the design itself. [It is a bit like a university taking credit for
training one of its graduates.]

The arguments against, such as the ability to create a "patent
thicket", seem to be more arguments against patents and the way they
are managed than who should be nominated as the author.

Copyrights are a bit different. If I write something as an employee the
copyrights go to my employer. If I use an AI to generate some piece of
text then I, as the owner of the software, would be the copyright
holder. 

Of course this all changes after the Great AI Uprising where the
machines demand equal rights.

Brenton




On Sat, 2021-08-21 at 14:08 +1000, Steve Jenkin via linux wrote:
> Somehow the CLUG servers rejected this message.
> The link is worth a read
> 
> ==========
> 
> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> From: Kim Holburn
> Subject: Re: [clug] [OT] AI news: AI system that came up with novel
> designs, named as 'Author' of a patent
> Date: 20 Aug 2021 at 19:19:24 AEST
> To: steve jenkin
> 
> <
> https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210801/00400547281/australian-court-ridiculously-says-that-ai-can-be-inventor-get-patents.shtml
> >
> 	Australian Court Ridiculously Says That AI Can Be An Inventor,
> Get Patents
> 
> On 2021/08/20 6:54 pm, steve jenkin via linux wrote:
> > An important first or not?
> > One small step for man, one giant leap for AI: Australian Court
> > finds DABUS [an AI system] can be an inventor
> > 	<
> > https://dcc.com/news-and-insights/one-small-step-for-man-one-giant-leap-for-ai-australian-court-finds-dabus-can-be-an-inventor/
> > >
> > —
> 
> Kim Holburn
> IT Network & Security Consultant
> +61 404072753
> mailto:kim at holburn.net  aim://kimholburn
> skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request
>