Singapore: Intellectual Property Office of Singapore closed inquiry into relevance of UK Supreme Court decision in Emotional Perception AI Limited v Comptroller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks to Singapore patent practice

On 28 May 2026, the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore closed the inquiry into the relevance of the UK Supreme Court decision in Emotional Perception AI Limited v Comptroller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks to Singapore's patent system. On 11 February 2026, the Supreme Court held that inventions involving artificial neural networks may be patentable provided they demonstrate technical character, departing from the Aerotel approach in favour of the European Patent Office's "any hardware" approach. The Singapore Patents Act does not contain an explicit list of excluded subject matter, with exclusions instead developed through case law and examination practice often drawing on the UK approach. The consultation is directed at intellectual property practitioners, patent applicants and patent agents in Singapore. IPOS invites views on three questions, firstly the relevance of the decision to the development of patent practice in Singapore, secondly the clarity it provides on patentable subject matter and its interaction with the assessment of inventive step, and thirdly the issues that may arise for patent applicants and practitioners and how these may be addressed.