The Final Word? Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Case on AI Authorship and Inventorship

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to consider whether artificial intelligence can be an author under U.S. copyright law. On March 2, 2026, the Court denied certiorari in Thaler v. Perlmutter, case number 25-449. This action ends Dr. Stephen Thaler's years-long effort to obtain copyright protection for artwork he attributes to his AI system DABUS. Thaler filed a copyright application in 2018 for A Recent Entrance to Paradise and listed the AI as the author. The Copyright Office rejected it in 2022 because copyright requires human authors. Federal district and appeals courts affirmed the rejection through 2025. The copyright outcome aligns with Thaler's patent efforts. Applications naming DABUS as the sole inventor were rejected by the Patent and Trademark Office on the basis that inventorship is limited to natural persons. The Federal Circuit affirmed, and the Supreme Court declined review in that case as well. Updated USPTO guidance from November 2025 states that only natural persons qualify as inventors. Attorneys for Thaler said the refusal could irreversibly and negatively impact AI development and use in the creative industry. The decision leaves room for future litigation.