Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1981 musical 'Cats' features eccentric Mr. Mistoffelees.
Like the other cats, Mr. Mistoffelees has its own song.
In the play, before performing the song, rock star-esque cat, Rum Tum Tugger, presents Mr. Mistoffelees with the following lyrics:
You ought to know about Mr. Mistoffelees the original Conjuring Cat. (There can be no doubt about that.) Please listen to me and don't scoff. All his inventions are off his own bat. There's no such cat in the Metropolis: He holds all the patent monopolies, For performing surprising illusions and creating eccentric confusions.
Well, it seems that the musical suggests even cats can hold patents.
Recently, however, a number of patent offices denied inventorship for artificial intelligences and courts ruled that a human needs to be named as inventor while the AI can play an additional role.
So, it can be put into question that animals, even when intelligent, can officially be inventors. But in the world of musicals and imagination everything is possible!
Comments