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AI Can Facilitate Innovation, But It Can Also Become a Potent Patent Killer
When is an inventor not an inventor? It's when the inventor isn't human. So, if a non-human inventor can't, in the eyes of patent law, be an inventor, what role can the non-human inventor have in the patent system? The answer is straightforward. Even though it can't create, it can destroy.
In Thaler v. Vidal, 43 F.4th 1207 (Fed. Cir. 2022), cert. denied, 143 S.Ct. 1783 (2023), the Federal Circuit addressed the patentability of an invention for a container for rapidly reheating food. Whether the invention was patentable, however, didn't turn on the nature of the invention. It turned on the nature of the inventor.
The container had been created by DABUS, an artificial intelligence program. Stephen Thaler, DABUS' owner, filed the patent application for the container and candidly identified DABUS as the inventor. The Patent Office rejected the application because DABUS is not human. The trial court affirmed the Patent Office's decision; the Federal Circuit agreed; and the Supreme Court denied the petition for certiorari. Thus, for now, the rule is clear: An AI cannot be a patent inventor.
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Major Differences In UK, U.S. Copyright Laws
This article highlights how copyright law in the United Kingdom differs from U.S. copyright law, and points out differences that may be crucial to entertainment and media businesses familiar with U.S law that are interested in operating in the United Kingdom or under UK law. The article also briefly addresses contrasts in UK and U.S. trademark law.
The Article 8 Opt In
The Article 8 opt-in election adds an additional layer of complexity to the already labyrinthine rules governing perfection of security interests under the UCC. A lender that is unaware of the nuances created by the opt in (may find its security interest vulnerable to being primed by another party that has taken steps to perfect in a superior manner under the circumstances.
Strategy vs. Tactics: Two Sides of a Difficult Coin
With each successive large-scale cyber attack, it is slowly becoming clear that ransomware attacks are targeting the critical infrastructure of the most powerful country on the planet. Understanding the strategy, and tactics of our opponents, as well as the strategy and the tactics we implement as a response are vital to victory.
Legal Possession: What Does It Mean?
Possession of real property is a matter of physical fact. Having the right or legal entitlement to possession is not "possession," possession is "the fact of having or holding property in one's power." That power means having physical dominion and control over the property.
The Anti-Assignment Override Provisions
UCC Sections 9406(d) and 9408(a) are one of the most powerful, yet least understood, sections of the Uniform Commercial Code. On their face, they appear to override anti-assignment provisions in agreements that would limit the grant of a security interest. But do these sections really work?