AI inventorship (DABUS) - The case-law principle, established by the UK Supreme Court in a judgment handed down on 20 December 2023, that an inventor under s.7 of the Patents Act 1977 must be a natural person, so an AI machine such as DABUS cannot be named as inventor (Thaler v Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks [2023] UKSC 49).