A step forward for the UK AI industry: Courts confirm that Artificial Neural Networks are patentable

The UK High Court has ruled that an AI invention comprising an artificial neural network (ANN) for providing media recommendations was not excluded from patentability. 

While section 1(2)(c) Patents Act 1977 excludes “a program for a computer…as such” from the scope of patentable subject matter, Sir Anthony Mann held that an ANN is not a computer program, and, even if it were, this one had sufficient technical effect to escape the exclusion. 

This is the first time that a UK court has considered patent protection for ANNs, and, in so doing, it has upended the previous UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) guidance on patentability for AI models. 

Under the previous approach, AI inventions were treated as mathematical methods or computer programs and therefore excluded from patentability, unless they had a technical effect outside the computer. 

In response to this decision, the UKIPO has suspended its previous guidance, announced an immediate change to practice for the examination of ANNs, and has promised updated guidance in due course. 

This landmark decision will provide a welcome boost to the AI industry as it opens up the possibility of patenting, in the UK, a range of AI inventions previously considered unpatentable. 

Read more in our DigiLinks post: “You may also like…”: UK High Court weighs in on the patentability of AI technologies (linklaters.com)