In a landmark ruling, a district court in Columbia has upheld a decision by the US Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) in ruling that artwork created by artificial intelligence is not eligible for copyright protection.
The judge upheld an earlier finding by the USPTO and in his decision ruled copyright law has “never stretched so far” to “protect works generated by new forms of technology operating absent any guiding human hand”.
The case relates to computer scientist, Stephen Thaler, who challenged the USPTO’s decision not to copyright an image created by artificial intelligence through the ‘’Creativity Machine’ algorithm he had created. The appeal was dismissed on the basis that “human authorship is a bedrock requirement of copyright”.
It is to be seen if Thaler will seek to appeal the decision yet again.
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