On 16 September 2025, the Full Federal Court of Australia handed down its decision in Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Patents [2025] FCAFC 131, holding Aristocrat’s claims to computer-implemented electronic gaming machine (EGM) technology to be patent-eligible subject matter, i.e. a ‘manner of manufacture’ (MoM) under Australian law. On 14 October 2025, IP Australia made initial amendments to its examination guidelines (most notably to section 5.6.8.1 General Principles – Assessing Manner of Manufacture and 5.6.8.6 Computer Implemented Inventions) in view of the Full Court’s decision. Meanwhile, however, the Commissioner of Patents was applying for special leave to appeal the Full Court’s decision to the High Court of Australia. On 5 February 2026, the High Court denied the Commissioner’s application, stating that ‘there is insufficient reason to doubt the correctness of the decision of the Full Court’ and marking the first time since 1991 that a dispute with the Commissioner over patentability of a computer implemented invention (CII) concluded with a victory for the applicant/patentee.
Since February, the examination guidelines have been twice updated – on 16 March 2026 and 3 July 2026 – firstly in view of the High Court’s refusal of special leave, and further in view feedback from stakeholders. It is therefore reasonable, and timely, to ask: what difference, if any, have the Full Court and High Court decisions and the updates to the examination manual actually made to outcomes in the examination of CIIs in Australia?
In this short update (it is early days yet) I report preliminary and tentative evidence that outcomes are improving in examination of applications directed to CIIs. Objections based on subject matter eligibility, i.e. MoM, have declined in every full quarter since Q3 2025, when the Full Court issued its decision in Aristocrat. In Q2 2026, MoM objections were 40% below their peak in Q4 2024. This is an astonishing turnaround in just 18 months, and is strong evidence that CIIs are receiving substantially more favourable treatment at the Australian Patent Office in the wake of the Aristocrat decisions.
