The UKIPO has now published Patent Practice Notice 02/26 following the Supreme Court's decision in Emotional Perception AI Ltd v Comptroller-General [2026] UKSC 3.
The decision changes the UK approach to excluded subject matter and computer-implemented inventions. In particular, the previous Aerotel approach is no longer the test applied by UKIPO examiners.
This matters for candidates as well as practitioners. The PEB has already confirmed that candidates sitting FC1, FD1 and FD4 in 2026 need to deal with patentability and inventive step consistently with the Supreme Court's decision.