Court rules that AI systems can be named inventors Court rules that AI systems can be named inventors Share In a world-first, a court has ruled that artificial intelligence systems can be named as inventors of a patent. International law firm Allens advised Dr Stephen Thaler on the successful appeal, wherein a court ruled that AI systems can be officially named as inventors. Dr Thaler is the inventor of the Device for Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience (DABUS), an AI system that has envisioned inventions entirely of its own accord. Used by Professor Ryan Abbott and his team at the University of Surrey, DABUS received the patent for a food container that improves grip and heat transfer in food.