The UK IPO has today released detailed guidance on the examination of patent applications relating to artificial intelligence.
The guidance confirms that in the UK, patents are available for AI inventions in all fields of technology. In particular, when the task or process performed by an AI invention reveals a technical contribution to the known art, the AI invention is not excluded from patentability and is patent-eligible under the UK IPO approach. The guidance states that an AI invention is likely to make a technical contribution if, when it runs on a computer, its instructions:
- embody a technical process which exists outside the computer; or
- contribute to the solution of a technical problem lying outside the computer; or
- solve a technical problem lying within the computer itself; or
- define a new way of operating the computer in a technical sense. Read more