Legal Updates 2024

Please browse our current UK legal updates on a range of legal topics. To view a particular topic, click on the relevant link below:

Legal Update: Patents - Artificial Intelligence (AI) Inventions reporting by Dr Rosanna Cooper and Daniella Corbin, July 2024

The UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) has recently re-released its guidance on examining patent applications concerning Artificial Intelligence (AI) inventions. The guidance followed the ruling of the High Court trademark case of Emotional Perception AI Ltd v Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs, November 2023. In the Emotional Perception AI case, a UKIPO hearing officer refused a patent application for an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) invention. The hearing officer argued that the ANN invention was a “program for a computer” and therefore excluded under the Patents Act. The High Court disagreed with this decision, confirming that an ANN is patentable and falls outside of that exclusion.

   Daniella Corbin

Emotional Perception Case

Emotional Perception AI invented a system that claimed tomake music and media recommendations to its users in anew and improved way. This was said to be possible basedon how the users were categorised by ANNs that weretrained. The claim itself considered two aspects of ANNusage: (i) the process by which ANN is trained, and (ii) theprocess of using the trained ANN.The patent application for this invention was rejected by ahearing officer of the UKIPO, who concluded that EmotionalPerception’s claimed invention was not patentable. Theofficer determined that the system created by EmotionalPerception, as a whole, was a computer program, andadditionally, its ability to provide similar filerecommendations was not “technical in nature” andbelieved it to be excluded from patentability under thePatents Act.

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Software Licensing :  IBM vs LZLABS case reporting by Daniella Corbin, May 2024 

In recent news, Zurich-based startup company, LZLabs is being sued for the second time by IBM, not for patent infringement like the previous 2022 Texas case between the two, but rather,  for “unlawful” use of IBM's “proprietary technology.”

In a statement, IBM stated that “ the case has nothing to do with restricting competition but protecting itself against the unlawful exploitation of technology that required billions of dollars of investment.” For that reason IBM wants the court to order LZLabs to stop selling its tech and forbid them and any subsidiaries from making further use of the IBM mainframe software.

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   Daniella Corbin