Supreme Court of the United Kingdom Overhauls AI Patentability

The United Kingdom===Supreme Court of the United Kingdom has issued a landmark judgment in the case of Emotional Perception AI Limited vs United Kingdom===Comptroller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks, significantly changing the assessment of patentability for AI and computer-implemented inventions in the UK. The court abandoned the long-standing 'Aerotel approach' and adopted the 'any-hardware' approach used by the International===European Patent Office. This means that if a claimed invention involves any technical means or hardware, it will not be automatically excluded from patentability as a 'computer program as such'. While Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are confirmed as 'programs for a computer', their implementation on hardware prevents their exclusion. Emotional Perception AI Limited's patent application, which relates to providing semantically similar file recommendations using an ANN, was initially refused by the United Kingdom===Intellectual Property Office, then briefly allowed by the High Court, and subsequently refused again by the Court of Appeal. The United Kingdom===Supreme Court of the United Kingdom has now allowed Emotional Perception AI Limited's appeal, referring the application back to the United Kingdom===Intellectual Property Office to assess its inventiveness under the new framework. This decision is expected to create a more favorable environment for AI and software innovators in the UK.