Suppose we had a computer program written in a language that allows its own code to be rewritten at run time, such as Lisp or Prolog. Now, suppose this program is set a task where many solutions are patented, such as data compression.
If I was to distribute the program, and the solution that it came up with by rewriting itself was exactly the same as a patented method, on some machines, what would happen?
I didn’t design my program to explicitly implement a certain algorithm: it figured it out for itself, after all. Would I be held liable?
A patent cannot be valid if the idea is “obvious”. Many patents have been overturned for this reason. One famous example is the “Weed Whacker” patent.
If a current era computer can figure out how to invent a patented compression scheme, you’ve got one great argument that the idea is obvious. But you’ll still need a lawyer and $.
Basically, we are a long way from developing computers that can invent anything considered non-trivial by patent standards.
I don’t think this is relevant in patent law. A patent prohibits anyone else from making use of the same invention, regardless of how they ‘invented’ it.
So even if I completely independently figured out how to build an airplane, if I tried to sell one, I would be infringing on the patents given to Wilber & Orville Wright many years ago. (Except that they are probably expired now.) That I figured it out for myself doesn’t affect the fact that the Wright Brothers figured it out before me, and received a patent on it.