On 30 January 2025, the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO)
published an update to the guidelines for examining patent
applications relating to artificial intelligence (AI) following the
Court of Appeal decision in Emotional Perception AI Ltd v
Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks [2024] EWCA
Civ 825.
The updates are intended to provide clarity on how the
'program for a computer' exclusion from patentability
should be applied, and to provide more guidance on what is
considered a technical contribution for overcoming the computer
program exclusion.
Under the UK Patents Act 1977, a 'program for a
computer' is excluded from patentability 'as such'. The
updates to the guidelines provide more direction on how a
'program for a computer' should be interpreted following
the conclusion in Emotional Perception, which states that a
computer is any machine for processing information, and a program
for a computer is a set of instructions for a machine
