專利法關於人工智慧發明重要議題之研究

Abstract

從人臉、語音識別到自動駕駛汽車，人工智慧已經跳脫科幻電影的虛構，逐漸走入並且遍佈我們的生活。雖然就目前已知的技術來說，人工智慧尚未具備思考能力，然而科學家不斷地希望能夠突破限制，讓人工智慧不僅能夠成為生活上的輔助、協助人類進行研究發明，甚至是由人工智慧獨立完成發明。\n為了鼓勵創作與發明，我國制定了智慧財產權相關法律如專利法、商標法及著作權法，惟因其保護之前提為精神上創作，目前的保護對象即權利歸屬主體，皆僅限於自然人。隨著人工智慧越來越接近人類，開始能夠進行創作甚至思考，進而可能成為真正有貢獻之發明人時，現有的智慧財產權相關法制規範，將會面臨包含權利主體、專利要件等適用上之困境，。\n事實上，人工智慧之本質與電腦軟體極為相似，其對於現行法制造成的衝擊，除了上述權利歸屬即要件認定問題外，另一方面則再次喚起了電腦軟體於智慧財產法上的適格性議題。就此，本文將討論範圍限縮在專利法，先從技術角度剖析介紹人工智慧之內涵與發展，再從專利法立法目的切入，綜合各國規範見解與近期發布之相關審查指南分析其發明適格性，進一步討論當由人工智慧產生衍生之發明時，應如何進行權利主體之認定，以及其對於相關產業造成之利弊影響。

Artificial intelligence (A.I.) such as face recognition, voice recognition, autopilot, etc., has become not only the sci-fi movie plots but been all over our lives. Although A.I. hasn’t been capable of thinking like a real human-being yet according to the technology known so far, scientists still keep working on breaking through the restrictions, making the artificial intelligence become an important assistant role in human life. It helps people during the research process, and can even become the independent inventor.\nIntellectual property law such as patent law, trademark law, and copyright law are enacted to encourage creation and invention. While the premise of the law protection above currently should be mental activity of human, in other words, “natural person” is the only subject of rights of creator and inventor. It may cause problems when A.I. starts to act like human and even be able to make the substantive features of the invention. Thus, it is essential to decide whether to enable the eligibility of subject of right of artificial intelligence in advance.\nIn fact, the essence of A.I. is very similar to computer software. Besides the problems of subject of right mentioned above, the impact of A.I. on the current law system also evoked the issue of eligibility of computer software on intellectual property law once again. In this regard, this article limits the scope of discussion to the patent law, and introduce the connotation and development of A.I. from the technical point of view. After that, it will cut through the legislative purpose of the patent law, analyze the opinions and guidelines issued recently in different countries, and also the identification of the subject of rights and the pros and cons of related industries.