Statutory guidance: Examination of patent applications involving artificial neural networks

On 21 November 2023 the High Court handed down its judgment in Emotional Perception AI Ltd v Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks [2023] EWHC 2948 (Ch). Following the judgment, the office is making an immediate change to practice for the examination of ANNs for excluded subject matter. Patent Examiners should not object to inventions involving an ANN under the “program for a computer” exclusion of section 1(2)(c).