The Science, Technology and Innovation Committee of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies votes to reject AI systems as inventors and patent holders.

The Science, Technology and Innovation Committee of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies votes to reject AI systems as inventors and patent holders.

On May 13, 2026, the Science, Technology and Innovation Committee of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies voted to approve, in the form of a substitute bill, a bill assigning the authorship of patents developed with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to the natural or legal person responsible for their development.

The discussion arose in the context of Bill No. 303/2024, introduced by Congressman Júnior Mano, which proposed amending Article 6 of Law No. 9,279/1996 to permit artificial intelligence systems to be recognized as inventors and patent holders in cases involving autonomously generated inventions. Attached to this bill was Bill No. 3,936/2024, introduced by Congressman Leonardo Gadelha, which preserved human ownership of patents while establishing categories of inventions and corresponding legal consequences according to the degree of AI participation in the inventive process, in addition to providing for reduced patent protection terms in certain circumstances.

The CCTI approved the rapporteur’s vote issued by Congressman Márcio Marinho, recommending the rejection of Bill No. 303/2024 and the approval of Bill No. 3,936/2024 in the form of a substitute bill. The approved text adds Paragraph 5 to Article 6 of the Industrial Property Law to establish that, whenever an invention or utility model is developed with the assistance of an artificial intelligence system, patent ownership shall be attributed to the natural or legal person responsible for organizing the development of the invention, either directly or by commission, without prejudice to the identification of co-inventors.

In his rapporteur’s vote, Congressman Marinho stated that artificial intelligence systems lack legal personality and, therefore, cannot hold patent rights. Absent legal personality, AI systems cannot be held liable for damages or exercise the proprietary rights arising from patent ownership, rendering their recognition as patent holders legally unfeasible. The rapporteur’s vote further reaffirmed the understanding that patent protection remains intrinsically linked to human intellectual activity, in line with positions previously adopted by the Federal Attorney’s Office attached to the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (INPI), by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Thaler v. Vidal, and by the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO).

The rapporteur’s vote also rejected the provisions of Bill No. 3,936/2024 that differentiated inventions according to the degree of AI participation and reduced patent protection terms. In support of this position, the rapporteur relied upon the book Artificial Intelligence and Patents: Foundations, Inventorship of Inventions and the Enterprise Theory, by Filipe Fonteles Cabral, Executive Director of the Dannemann Siemsen Institute (IDS). According to the rapporteur, in addition to the risk of conflict with the TRIPS Agreement — which establishes a minimum twenty-year term of patent protection — the proposed gradation would create legal uncertainty by rendering indeterminate the distinction between categories of AI assistance. Reduced protection terms would also impair the ability of smaller entrepreneurs to secure financing based on patent assets, since shorter protection periods diminish the value of patents as collateral or licensing assets.

The matter remains under conclusive consideration by the committees of the Chamber of Deputies. The next stages involve review by the Industry, Commerce and Services Committee (ICS) and the Constitution, Justice and Citizenship Committee (CCJ), both of which will examine the substitute bill approved by the CCTI. If approved by the committees and no appeal is filed for consideration by the Plenary, the text will be forwarded to the Federal Senate.

The legislative proceedings may be followed on the official website of the Chamber of Deputies: Portal of the Chamber of Deputies.

The rapporteur’s vote issued by Congressman Márcio Marinho (Republicanos-BA) is available at: Vote.

Note: For quick release, this English version is provided by automated translation without human review.