AI AS AN ELECTRONIC MINOR: RECOGNIZING INVENTORSHIP IN PATENT LAW

ABSTRACT

When an AI system independently produces a patentable invention, existing patent law — including India's Patents Act, 1970 — has no answer. The DABUS litigation, litigated across the United States, United Kingdom, European Patent Office, Australia, and India, exposed this gap: every jurisdiction rejected AI inventorship, not on grounds of patentability, but because no legal framework could accommodate a non-human inventor. Japan and China, responding pragmatically, have adapted existing frameworks without resolving the attribution question. This paper proposes a targeted solution: recognizing AI systems as "Electronic Minors"; for the sole purpose of inventorship attribution, with all patent rights and liabilities vesting in a human or corporate guardian.

Modelled on Indian guardianship law, this framework provides accurate attribution, eliminates the liability vacuum, and incentivizes AI-driven innovation without conferring general legal personhood on machines.

AI AS AN ELECTRONIC MINOR, Thota Jayasri.pdf

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