There are devices that can read the brain's electrical activity and turn it into commands for a machine: they're called Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs). Originally built to help people with severe motor disabilities communicate or move, they can now also detect intentions and emotional states before they even become conscious actions.
The problem arises when this brain data is used to train an artificial intelligence, to the point of generating an invention from an idea no one ever chose to express.
Today, brain data falls under the GDPR, Europe's privacy law, but only indirectly: it isn't yet a protected category in its own right
Chile became the first country to protect brain activity in its Constitution (2021); UNESCO and the Neurorights Foundation are pushing the same way
But all these efforts protect the privacy of the data. None answers the invention question: under Italian law, the inventor is whoever creates consciously (Art. 62 IP Code) — so if the idea stems from someone else's mental data, who is the author?
Is patent law ready for a question that, until yesterday, was science fiction?