A U.S. federal judge has ruled that a macaque monkey who took selfie photographs cannot be declared the copyright owner of the photos.

"While Congress and the president can extend the protection of law to animals as well as humans, there is no indication that they did so in the Copyright Act." U.S. District Judge William Orrick said in federal court in San Francisco Wednesday.

According to AP, the lawsuit filed last year by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sought a court order allowing PETA to represent the monkey and let it to administer all proceeds from the photos for the benefit of the monkey.

The now famous “monkey selfies” are a series of images taken by a female Celebes crested macaque using equipment belonging to British nature photographer David Slater.

During a 2011 trip to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, Slater set up the camera on a tripod, and deliberately left the remote trigger for the camera accessible to the macaque. A macaque, identified as 6-year-old Naruto, pressed the remote trigger and took several photographs, some of which were later distributed by Slater as a "monkey's selfie".