Missouri man fighting for right of computers to hold patents [NEWS]

Not "patents on computers"... he wants the actual computers to hold the patents.

Ok. This is wild. Serious SkyNet stuff here. Follow me down this rabbit hole.

Note: This is 100% real. This is not satire. Follow the links to the various legal documents. Absolutely wild… and real.

Back in 2019, a gentleman by the name of Stephen Thaler applied for two patents on behalf of his computers. One patent for a “fractal” food container and one for an emergency light.

His stance is that he did not create these ideas. He states that these ideas were created entirely by a system known as DABUS — which stands for “Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience” — and that “arguably, DABUS may be considered sentient.”

Thaler has filed patent applications (again, on his computers behalf) in the EU, UK, and USA. Thus far, those patent applications have been rejected in… the EU, UK, and USA.

The general objection to these two patents has been pretty simple: patents can only be held by people (aka “natural persons”). And computers are not people.

Thanks to reporting from The Register, we now know that Thaller took legal action against the Director of the USA Patent Office. And lost.

The Judge in this case (Judge Leonie Brinkema) has ruled in favor of the Patent Office — stating that in order to grant a patent, a person must take an oath to swear that they are the actual inventor of the idea. And computers can’t… do that. Therefor a computer cannot hold a patent.

Now, a judge in Australia has ruled that an Artificial Intelligence can, indeed, hold a patent. And Thaller is vowing to continue to fight for the rights of his computers.

“Humans are denying those rights in the first place, being stuck in an age-old paradigm rut in which only wet computers – ie: brains – count.” — Thaller, in an interview with The Register.

… Let’s be frank.

He’s fighting for the rights of SkyNet to have full human, legal status.

Not fiction. Not in a totally rad movie. In real life.

It starts with “fractal food containers” and ends with robots crushing human skulls with their feet.