Source: Nature (Humanities and Social Sciences Communications)

Nature (Humanities and Social Sciences Communications) publishes a research article titled "Challenges and prospects in granting patent rights to AI-generated inventions," authored by Nashwa Ahmed Mohamed and colleagues. The study provides a comprehensive legal analysis of the obstacles preventing artificial intelligence systems from being recognized as inventors under current patent regimes. By adopting a comparative approach, the authors scrutinize the requirement for a human inventor inherent in most industrial property laws and discuss the complex debates surrounding the potential granting of legal personality to autonomous AI systems.

The research pays particular attention to the legal framework of the United Arab Emirates, specifically Federal Law No. 11 of 2021, using it as a case study to highlight global legislative gaps. The authors argue that the rapid evolution of AI capabilities—moving towards self-learning and independent innovation—renders existing frameworks inadequate. The paper concludes that legislative reform is essential to maintain the efficacy of the patent system, recommending the adoption of flexible legal structures that can explicitly regulate and protect AI-generated outputs without necessarily attributing human status to the machine, thereby ensuring continued incentives for innovation in the tech sector.