Rethinking Inventorship after South Africa's DABUS Patent Grant

Abstract

The grant of South African patent ZA 2021/03242, which listed the artificial intelligence (AI) system known as the Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience (DABUS) as inventor, exposes a doctrinal problem within South African patent law rather than a settled recognition of AI” inventorship. South Africa's Patents Act 57 of 1978 was drafted on the assumption that inventorship, entitlement, assignment and enforcement are anchored in persons capable of holding and transferring legal rights. Because the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) operates within a largely depository system, the DABUS outcome is best understood as a procedural artefact of formal registration rather than a substantive endorsement of non-human inventorship. Therefore, this study asks whether the current South African framework can securely accommodate AI-generated inventions and concludes that it cannot do so without legislative reform. It argues for a South African reform model that recognises AI assistance through disclosure, while keeping inventorship, title, and accountability anchored in natural or juristic persons who derive rights through ordinary legal mechanisms. Accordingly, this study recommends that Parliament amend the Patents Act to clarify inventorship rules, incorporate disclosure obligations, and strengthen institutional practice within the CIPC.