According to an article on DLA Piper, a recent UK High Court ruling established that AI-related inventions can be patented, even though AI cannot be named as an inventor. This decision arose from the case of Emotional Perception AI Ltd v Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks [2023] EWHC 2948 (Ch), where the court ruled that an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) should not be excluded from patent protection as merely a "program for a computer" under section 1(2) of the Patents Act 1977.

The court concluded that the ANN, trained through machine learning, operates on a level different from traditional computer programs because it functions based on learned data rather than pre-programmed instructions. This differentiation allows such AI systems to be considered patentable as they provide a technical contribution beyond the software itself. The UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) is set to appeal this decision, but for now, the ruling represents a significant shift in how AI-related inventions are viewed under UK patent law​.