Patentability of Artificial Intelligence-Generated Inventions in India: Rethinking Inventorship and the Requirement of Human Contribution.

The growing use of AI in the innovation process includes the development of new technology with the various degrees of human interaction. It threatens the very basis of patent law, which is based on certain human elements such as inventorship, inventive step, and human intellect. As stated by the Patents Act, 1970 in India, “there should be a mention of the person who claims to be the true and first inventor in a patent application. The present examination process in India divides patents into inventions developed by AI and those with AI assistance. As per the new guidelines issued by India, inventions made solely by AI or by the AI with minimal human intervention are not patentable due to the fact that “the AI cannot be considered as a person claiming to be an inventor according to Section 6 of the Patents Act, 1970. This study takes a critical look at whether the current requirement of human inventorship is still relevant in an age when AI systems could independently play a part in the conception and development of inventions. This paper discusses the interplay of AI-driven innovations and the current requirement of human contribution, paying attention especially to Sections 2(1)(j), 2(1)(ja), 3(k), 6 and 7 of the Patents Act, 1970 and the developing examination paradigm in case of inventions involving AI in India. Additionally, the paper will consider the implications of denial of patentability to inventions which are genuinely driven by AI in terms of their implications on innovation incentives, ownership and disclosure and commercialisation of the same. In this way, the paper demonstrates how insistence on traditional human inventorship creates a gap between technological reality and patent law.