The Supreme Court held that ANNs are computer programs however the exclusion from patentability does not apply. The Supreme Court said that the Aerotel test for patentability, applied by the Court of Appeal, was no longer the right test and the UK should be adopting the EPO “any hardware” approach (as approved by the Enlarged Board of Appeal in G1/19) when considering exclusions from patentability. Applying the “any hardware” approach, the Court held that the claimed invention was not excluded from patentability because the invention involved technical means by virtue of being implemented on computer hardware. The next step was to consider the “intermediate step” in G1/19 (i.e. filtering out features of the claim which do not contribute to, or interact with, the technical character of the invention – before then considering novelty and inventive step). However, since neither the lower courts, nor the Supreme Court, had heard submissions on the intermediate step, this was left to the IPO Hearing Officer to decide. Therefore, although the Supreme Court decision impacts the UK’s approach to patentability, and could make it easier for inventions concerning ANNs (and other computer-related patents) to be patented in the UK, whether applying the EPO “any hardware” test rather than the traditional Aerotel test will make a difference in practice remains to be seen.