China’s top court reinforces human-inventor rule, scope of human-contribution standard likely to be tested in future litigation

Context: China had already taken a clear administrative position that artificial intelligence (AI) itself cannot qualify as an inventor. The Patent Examination Guidelines expressly require inventors to be natural persons and exclude AI systems from being named as inventors (Part I, Chapter 1, Section 4.1.2, second paragraph of the Guidelines). That position was then tested directly in China’s own DABUS proceedings: the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) rejected Stephen Thaler’s application, CN201980006158.0, and upheld the rejection on reexamination; Mr. Thaler’s challenge before the Beijing Intellectual Property Court remains pending (Artificial Inventor Project DABUS patent tracker).