"[T]he rejection of the approach by the EPO cannot sensibly be described as just a preference for a different methodology or practice among a range of options potentially available. It is a rejection firmly based upon a determination that the Court of Appeal in Aerotel misinterpreted the EPC..." - UK Supreme Court The UK Supreme Court today issued a landmark judgment on AI patentability that is likely to impact all software patents going forward."
"Under Aerotel, courts and examiners consider a four-step test for assessing whether a claim is excluded from patent eligibility: 1) properly construe the claim, 2) identify the actual/ alleged contribution, 3) ask whether the contribution is excluded and 4) check if the contribution is technical. The UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) applied Aerotel to the case at hand to find a patented system for providing media file recommendations based on an artificial neural network (ANN) ineligible. Specifically, the UKIPO Hearing officer said that "the contribution in the present case falls solely within the computer program exclusion and that 'the ANN-based system for providing semantically similar file recommendations is not technical in nature.'""
"The decision of the UKIPO was appealed to the High Court of Justice, which held in 2023 that the claim at issue did not claim "a program for a computer...as such" and therefore the invention was not excluded under the UK statute. The UK Patents Act of 1977 expressly lists categories of patent ineligible subject matter, including business methods and computer programs. The High Court decision was then appealed to the UK Court of Appeal, which reversed that decision in 2024."
The UK Supreme Court concluded that the Aerotel approach should no longer be followed and found that the Court of Appeal misinterpreted the EPC. A UKIPO hearing officer applied Aerotel and deemed an ANN-based media recommendation system ineligible, categorising the contribution as a computer program exclusion and non-technical. The High Court held in 2023 that the claim did not amount to a program for a computer as such and was not excluded; the Court of Appeal reversed that decision in 2024. The Supreme Court ruling changes the framework for assessing patent eligibility of software and AI inventions and will influence examination and litigation.
Read at IPWatchdog.com | Patents & Intellectual Property Law
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