REF 2021 case study: How Surrey research led to world-first patent applications being granted for AI-generated inventions 

The first patent applications for AI-generated inventions have been granted thanks to research at Surrey, sparking an international dialogue on how new technologies are challenging existing legal standards. 

Previously, the law had assumed that only human inventions are patentable, leaving an increasing number of AI-generated inventions with no protection.  

Professor Ryan Abbott in the School of Law explored the legal, regulatory, industrial and societal impacts of the gaps in existing legal protections. 

He argued that allowing AI-generated inventions to be patented would facilitate innovation, advance the commercialisation of important advances such as AI-designed pharmaceutical drugs, and preserve the integrity of ‘human inventorship’.   

 As a result of his research, patents have been filed for two inventions by the AI machine ‘DABUS’.  

In addition, the UK Intellectual Property Office has indicated that there is a need for a change in the current law – just one of a series of intellectual property organisations and judiciaries around the world wrestling with the challenges identified by Abbott’s research. 

This work is one example of research impact included in the University’s Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 submission. 

REF 2021 is the UK’s system for assessing the excellence of research in UK higher education providers.      

Nationally, the REF outcomes are used to inform the allocation of around £2 billion per year of public funding for universities’ research. The results will be published in May.     

This is one of a series of pieces highlighting Surrey’s research excellence and the REF 2021 impact case studies, published ahead of the 2021 REF results.