Legal Risks of AI-Generated Inventions Without Human Inventors

As artificial intelligence becomes more advanced, it's beginning to create things—art, music, even technical inventions.

But here’s the legal puzzle: what happens when an AI invents something completely on its own?

Who owns the rights?

Is it even legal to grant a patent to a non-human?

This post unpacks the growing legal challenges surrounding AI-generated inventions without a human inventor.

📌 Table of Contents

In 2019, an AI named DABUS created two inventions without human intervention.

Its creator, Dr. Stephen Thaler, filed for patents in multiple countries, listing DABUS as the sole inventor.

Patent offices in the US, UK, and EU rejected the applications, stating only a human can be legally recognized as an inventor.

This set a precedent—and a legal debate still unfolding.

Under most current laws, including U.S. patent law (Title 35), inventorship is reserved for “natural persons.”

In other words, AI—no matter how creative—cannot hold legal rights.

This creates an issue when the human operator doesn’t meaningfully contribute to the invention.

Courts may struggle to assign inventorship in such cases.

Ownership of an invention flows from the inventor.

If there is no legally recognized inventor, there may be no valid patent right at all.

This could deter businesses from investing in AI R&D if the output isn’t protectable.

Alternatively, firms may push for changes to IP law to recognize AI-assisted inventorship.

Companies using AI to generate inventions must assess IP risk early.

Without human input, they may lose enforceability or fail to meet disclosure requirements.

They may also face litigation if competitors argue the patent is invalid due to improper inventorship.

Some legal scholars argue that AI should be treated like a tool, with the human directing it named as the inventor.

Others suggest creating a new legal status for AI or attributing inventorship to the system’s owner or developer.

Either way, global IP laws must evolve to address this emerging frontier.

AI inventorship, patent law, intellectual property risks, DABUS case, legal AI ownership