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by feanaro 916 days ago
So if we package up AI into an autonomous loop, so that it can file for a patent unprompted, that is sufficient precondition to allow patents to be assigned to such a loop?
3 comments

Yes, the person who packages up a loop to make patents, get a patent for that loop and anything else it produces, right?

Move this to the "Autonomous vehicle" line of thought. IF we accept the risks of a vehicle without a driver, how do we accomodate the _culpability_ of that risk?

Same thing in patent law. Someone needs to hold that "culpability". Maybe there'll be a robust future systems of laws that assigns the correct weightings, but it's not today.

Interesting question. I guess that's one of the upcoming challenges for the entire legal system when it comes to AI.

One fundamental problem with such approach would of course be money. The AI would need to have a means of paying the fees and the USPTO declaration (37 CFR 1.63) may also prove difficult for an AI - "wilfulness" w.r.t. to false statements comes to mind. But that's a whole new can of worms I don't want to open.

no, because they don't have access to a credit card to pay the fees.
Corporate bank accounts are a thing, at least one country considers bitcoin to be legal tender, and 1.7 billion humans had no back account as recently as 2018.