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: India
: Law Practice
: Intellectual Property

Can an AI machine be the inventor of an invention described in a patent? Is Indian patent law advantageous over other countries patent laws?

The robot that you created has invented a machine or a new software to solve one of the world’s burning issues. Let’s explore how apt is the (Indian) Patents Act, 1970 to grant an Indian patent to your robot.

March 7, 2021
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Print Report

The European Patent Office (EPO), the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO), and the USPTO recently refused patent applications in which a machine, “DABUS,” was designated as the inventor. The patents were refused primarily on the grounds that an inventor designated in the application has to be a human being, not a machine.

Lets turn to (Indian) Patents Act, 1970 –

(a) the phrase “inventor” is included in the definition of “true and first inventor” in the Patents Act, 1970 i.e. “true and first inventor” does not include either the first importer of an invention into India, or a person to whom an invention is first communicated from outside India. It may be noted that this definition does not clarify that an individual or a human being can only be an inventor.

(b) the Patents Act, 1970 provides that a patent application can be filed by a “person” claiming to be a true and first inventor. The term “person” as defined in the Patents Act, 1970 includes Government. Further, the term “person” as defined in the General Clauses Act, 1897 includes any company or association or body of individuals, whether incorporated or not. Therefore, in absence of any strict requirement in the definition of “person” that means only an individual or human being, one can argue that an artificial person can also be an inventor.

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Ashish Chandra

Associate General Counsel, WhatsApp

Ashish Chandra

Ashish Chandra

Ashish leads the legal and regulatory affairs of WhatsApp for India (its largest and one of the most important markets in the world). He is also building the e-commerce and fintech / payments business of Facebook, Instagram & WhatsApp in India.

In the past, Ashish has worked with various large Indian and US companies like Netflix, eBay, Reliance Jio & Snapdeal. Over last 20 years, Ashish has firsthand witnessed and contributed to the growth of Internet business and related regulations and jurisprudence in India.

Some of the key skills of Ashish are:

As a deal maker, throughout his career, Ashish has structured approx. $8 billion in VC / PE funding, acquired about 20 businesses, and forged strategic tie-ups valuing billions of dollars in tech and internet space. Ashish's recent investment deal was Facebook's US$ 5.7 billion investment in Reliance Jio - India's largest tech investment till date.

As a policy advocate, Ashish has represented large corporations and industry bodies before various regulators and parliamentarians for shaping up laws and policies on eCommerce, digital payments, streaming videos, telecom, data privacy and free speech.

As a strategic litigator, Ashish has successfully handled many firsts of internet related litigations in India viz., intermediary safe harbor for protecting business models and coercive actions against senior management, shareholders disputes, foreign investment and competition law issues in eCommerce, opt in consents and data sharing, freedom of speech on internet, data localization, end to end encryption challenges, law enforcement related issues, and video streaming content rights and creative freedom. As a thought leader, Ashish has authored many articles on internet, technology and media laws, and is a regular speaker and panelist at industry leading conferences.

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