As previously reported, the UK Court of Appeal rejected an attempt to name a computer system (DABUS) as an inventor on a UK patent application. As suggested in that report, and unsurprisingly given the widespread attempts by the DABUS team to gain acceptance of computer inventors (and indeed the hype that they have sought to generate around these cases), we understand that the applicants have now applied to the Supreme Court for permission to appeal that decision. Whilst the applicants may be encouraged by the "split" in the Court of Appeal decision, an appeal to the Supreme Court would represent a third level of appeal in this case, which is generally only granted in exceptional circumstances.

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