CIPIL Seminar/Webinar: 'Human Inventorship in European Patent Law'

Title: 'Human Inventorship in European Patent Law'

Speaker: Eva Janečková, University of Bristol 

Biography

Eva Janečková (née Stanková) reads for DPhil at the EPSRC CDT in Cyber Security and Oxford Faculty of Law. Her DPhil thesis is devoted to the problem of copyright and patent law protection for objects generated by artificial intelligence-driven systems and its implications for cyber security. Her doctoral research is supervised by Professor Justine Pila and financially supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Eva is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Bristol and has taught in the Intellectual Property Law and Regulation courses at Oxford. Besides intellectual property and cyber security, her research interests include data protection and competition law.

Abstract

This article uses the advancements in artificial intelligence as the starting point for consideration of the role of human inventorship in European patent law. It argues that human inventorship is a necessary condition for the existence of an invention and inventive step, with the result that only products of human inventorship merit European patents. It identifies failings of European authorities to reflect this adequately in their approaches to determining patentability. Finally, it recommends recognising human inventorship as an implicit patentability requirement being an aspect of the statutory requirements for an invention and inventive step and extending applicant's disclosure duties correspondingly.

Zoom registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bjJ4tcOjQWKIN4u-hUWDOQ