Permission Granted!  Emotional Perception to appeal to UK Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has recently granted Emotional Perception permission to appeal the decision of the Court of Appeal, which was handed down on 19 July 2024. As reported previously, the Court of Appeal decided that a trained artificial neural network (ANN) involves a computer program, and that Emotional Perception’s ANN was not patentable due to lack of technical contribution.  The most notable aspect of the hearing was the Court’s interpretation of the terms computer and technical contribution.

This case has attracted a lot of attention in the worlds of IP and AI, as its journey through the Courts has been nothing short of remarkable.  As reported previously, the High Court had found that trained ANNs were not computer programs as such, and so could not be excluded from patentability.  This finding effectively overturned the UKIPO’s stance on ANNs, and indeed the UKIPO’s decision to refuse Emotional Perception’s patent application for an ANN-based media file recommendation engine.  However, the Court of Appeal subsequently overturned the High Court’s decision, upholding the UKIPO’s original decision that Emotional Perception’s application is excluded from patentability.  Now we look forward to hearing what the highest court in the UK has to say on the matter!

There is no automatic right of appeal to the Supreme Court in the UK, and the fact that Emotional Perception has been granted permission indicates the legal significance of the case.  The outcome of the Supreme Court’s decision is likely to have a considerable impact on how AI patent applications are handled in the UK, potentially for many years to come. 

We will continue to monitor this case so that we can provide updates.

Please get in touch with our attorneys at gje@gje.com if you would like to discuss how this might affect your portfolio, or any specific cases.