Emotional Perception goes to the UK Supreme Court

It has been reported that the Supreme Court has given Emotional Perception permission to appeal the Court of Appeal judgment ([2024] EWCA Civ 825) issued in July this year.

The Emotional Perception case, which relates to the patentability of artificial neural networks (ANNs) in light of the statutory exclusions, has caused some uncertainty in UK IPO practice over the past year.  After the High Court had originally concluded that the patent did not fall foul of the exclusions, the UK IPO had updated its guidance on the patentability of AI inventions in May of this year (as discussed here), only for this guidance to be suspended after the Court of Appeal judgment found that the subject matter was indeed excluded (as reported here). While the Supreme Court looks set to have its say, the UK IPO is for now bound by the Court of Appeal judgment.

The final judgment of the Supreme Court will be highly anticipated, not only given its obvious implications for the patentability of AI innovations but also due to its potential impact on the question of patentable subject matter in general.