--- title: "Are South Africa’s IP laws keeping up with technology innovation?" description: "Those in favour of granting patents to AI systems assert that this will encourage technology innovation and investment in AI systems." image: https://spoor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Cape-Town-1.jpeg canonical: https://spoor.com/zh/are-south-africas-ip-laws-keeping-up-with-technology-innovation/ url: https://spoor.getmd.ai/zh/are-south-africas-ip-laws-keeping-up-with-technology-innovation/.md last_converted: 2026-07-28T08:32:44.974Z --- ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Article", "@id": "https://spoor.com/are-south-africas-ip-laws-keeping-up-with-technology-innovation/#article", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://spoor.com/are-south-africas-ip-laws-keeping-up-with-technology-innovation/" }, "author": { "name": "Spoor & Fisher", "@id": "https://spoor.com/#/schema/person/7dad7b9bcdd00617832fbe66d90d9c29" }, "headline": "Are South Africa’s IP laws keeping up with 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首席执行官 Stephen Thaler 创建[.](https://www.imagination-engines.com/) Thaler 为 DABUS 创建了源代码，他在世界各地提交的专利申请中将其命名为该产品的“发明者”，同时将自己命名为“申请人”并因此称为专利权人。 虽然南非的专利奖无疑是开创性的，但它却引起了国际知识产权专家的强烈反对。 一些人认为这是公司和知识产权委员会下属的南非专利局的错误或疏忽，评论员指出授予专利是对立法规则和国有化程序的误解的结果 **专利合作条约** (PCT) 在南非的申请。 许多人还将专利授予视为对南非专利程序的控诉，该程序目前仅包括形式审查步骤。这涉及复选框式评估，以确保所有相关表格均已提交并按时完成。 ### 检索和审查系统（SSE） 批评者认为，如果南非有一个实质性的 **检索和审查系统** （SSE）到位，DABUS专利申请将被拒绝。事实上（如下所述），SSE 在这种情况下是无关紧要的，因为即使是专利局有义务进行的形式审查，似乎也缺乏。 “在南非，我们的专利法没有对发明人的定义，也不需要进行实质审查。只要满足形式要求，就可以授予专利。” 他接着问道：“在 DABUS 的案例中，Thaler 是如何获得从一台机器申请专利的权利的？这种性质的未解决的困难可能会导致专利在未来受到争议。南非专利法规定，如果专利申请人不是发明人，申请人必须提供其代替发明人申请的权利证明。由于 DABUS 被称为发明者，机器应该如何“决定”将其（表面上的）权利分配给它的创造者——而且，这怎么可能在现实中实现呢？” 那些支持向人工智能系统授予专利的人声称，这将鼓励技术创新和对人工智能系统的投资，防止对人类的误解，并告知公众谁——或者实际上是什么——发明的实际创造者。 ### 要求发明人为自然人的立法 但美国和英国专利局均拒绝了 DABUS 申请，理由之一是各自的立法要求发明人为自然人。当 Thaler 对此提出异议时，两项裁决均得到维持。 然后，在 2021 年 9 月，美国弗吉尼亚东区地方法院裁定，根据美国专利法，人工智能计算机不能被认定为发明人。它得出的结论是，“基于专利法和联邦巡回管理局的简单立法文本”，将人工智能系统指定为专利申请的发明人的“明确答案是否定的”。 根据判决，国会在专利法中使用“个人”一词强化了发明人必须是自然人的结论；国会将“个人”一词理解为与人有关。 在 DABUS 在南非获得第一项专利后不久，澳大利亚联邦法院的法官乔纳森·比奇 (Jonathan Beach) 也做出了支持 Thaler 的裁决，认为非人类可以被认定为专利的发明人。澳大利亚 1990 年的专利法没有定义发明人，该法案中也没有任何具体条款明确否认人工智能系统可以被视为发明人。比奇进一步表示，这种结构将符合专利法的目标，即促进发明。 **但问题仍然存在**: DABUS 申请能经得起法律审查吗？南非的知识产权法是否跟上技术创新的步伐？ Gilson 警告说：“这项专利授予应该为世界各国政府敲响警钟，以加快知识产权法律、法规和实践的现代化和协调进程。”