United Kingdom: Court of Appeal issued ruling in Emotional Perception AI Limited v Comptroller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks restoring refusal of patent application

On 19 July 2024, the Court of Appeal (Civil Division) allowed the appeal by the Comptroller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks ([2024] EWCA Civ 825) and restored the decision of the Hearing Officer of the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office. The Court of Appeal held that an artificial neural network, in whatever form implemented, constitutes a program for a computer within the meaning of section 1(2)(c) of the Patents Act 1977 and Article 52(2)(c) of the European Patent Convention. The Court of Appeal further held that the claimed invention was excluded from patentability as a program for a computer as such, as the beneficial effect of the system, the recommendation of semantically similar files, was subjective and cognitive in nature and did not constitute a technical effect outside the excluded subject matter.