Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Emotional Perception v Comptroller: UK Supreme Court overrules Aerotel; clarifies AI and mixed‑invention patentability; endorses Duns with Pozzoli; 'any hardware' can overcome s.1(2) exclusion.

Published on: 20 February 2026

Published by a LexisNexis IP expert

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Article summary

Emotional Perception vs Comptroller of Patents UKIPO [2026] UKSC 3 What are the practical Implications of the case?

To displace what had been viewed as an arbitrarily administered and subjective assessment (the now disapproved Aerotel approach that muddles the inquiry into inventiveness), the ruling holds that a claim need only specify any form of hardware — for example, the use of a computer, a computer-readable storage medium, or another technical means — to avoid the statutory bar in s.1(2) UK Patents Act ‘UKPA’. That threshold is strikingly low. This wholesale shift in method opens avenues to secure protection for innovations across other fields, provided there is a technical consideration that yields some kind of technical advantage. Yet what counts as ‘technical’ or ‘technology’ still demands careful articulation within the application’s description when setting out the invention. Where the technical contribution amounts to no more than automating a known procedure, difficulties persist. With Aerotel struck down ex tunc as erroneous law, broader commercial prospects emerge. And, with the substantive analysis requiring contextual evaluation of the invention as a whole, and a more evidently objective approach to inventive step, we now appear to be on objective, contextual, and commercially promising ground ahead...

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