The UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) has published new guidance setting out that patent examiners should not object to inventions involving an artificial neural network (ANN) under the “program for a computer” exclusion of section 1(2)(c) of the Patents Act 1977.On 21 November 2023 the UK High Court handed down its judgement in Emotional Perception AI Ltd v Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks [2023] EWHC 2948 (Ch). The judgement related to whether an invention involving an ANN constituted excluded subject matter as a “program for a computer … as such” under section 1(2)(c) of the Patents Act 1977. The judgement held that the trained ANN of the claimed invention was not a computer program at all and thus did not engage the relevant exclusion. The judgement also held that, in any case, the invention involved a substantive technical contribution going beyond a program for a computer “as such”. Following this judgement, the UKIPO temporarily suspended their guidelines for examining patent applications relating to artificial intelligence (AI) inventions (see here) and published brief new guidance (see here). Under the new guidance, patent examiners should not object to inventions involving an ANN under the “program for a computer” exclusion of section 1(2)(c) of the Patents Act 1977.Notably, the judgement did not address whether an invention involving an ANN constitutes excluded subject matter as being a “mathematical method … as such” under section 1(2)(a) of the Patents Act 1977, which is another objection that is often raised in relation to AI and machine learning inventions.This is a significant development which might, for the time being at least, make it easier for applicants to obtain patents for AI inventions in the UK. It remains to be seen whether the judgement will be appealed.